


A Divine Conspiracy

by Griddlebone



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Complete, Dragons, Drama, F/M, Fantasy, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Swords & Sorcery, True Love, Wordcount: Over 100.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2017-10-11 05:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 50
Words: 320,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griddlebone/pseuds/Griddlebone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the fate of a kingdom resting on her shoulders, Kimberly must choose the right man to be her husband and Champion, to wield the sacred Power of her bloodline... even if choosing the "right" man means breaking her heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Dark Days

**Author's Note:**

> Major pairings: Tommy/Kim, Jason/Trini  
> Minor pairings: Zack/Angela, Adam/Aisha/Rocky  
> Mentions of: Tommy/Kat (dubcon)

The funeral was a grand affair. For two days a gloomy pall hung over the town surrounding the castle, and the air was filled by the sonorous tolling of the mourning bells. When the funeral procession wound its way, long and snakelike, through the streets, the townsfolk turned out in droves to say their final farewells. Windows and people alike were cloaked in thick black fabric; each man and woman kept his or her eyes cast down upon the ground. Each wondered what would happen now.

The king and queen were dead, leaving only a single daughter as heir to the throne. And so, as the procession passed and the former rulers were laid to rest among their ancestors, all eyes turned gradually to peer through the fog at the castle. Through the clouds and rain it seemed so much more dark and ominous than it had a mere few days ago.

It was no different within the castle walls. Servants and nobles alike waited with bated breath, and for good reason: the Princess was taking counsel with the realm's oldest and wisest wizard, Zordon. They were closeted – alone – in the royal audience chamber, the doors barred and watched at all times by two armed guards. No one was allowed to interfere.

That did not stop them from trying, of course. Most of the noble families had something at stake. After all, the Princess Kimberly was seeking Zordon's counsel regarding her choice of husband. The man she chose would rule beside her as king.

Naturally, every vassal with an unmarried son of proper age wanted to push whatever advantage he could in order to put one of his own blood on the throne. None dared openly defy the will of Zordon, or the Princess, but many were brave enough to demand entrance to the audience chamber. All were rebuked. None tried a second time.

Jason Scott, a young, but distinguished knight from one of the oldest noble families in the land, watched the proceedings with no small amount of amusement. From looking at him it was impossible to tell that he was the rumor-mill's favorite candidate for the succession. He had been groomed for the role practically since birth, for all that he tended to ignore his royal obligations in favor of playing at combat in the kingdom's annual tournaments.

In the midst of all the turmoil, he projected an image of thoughtful calm. It suited his purposes to let the others remain oblivious; he was one of the few that knew the true importance of the Princess's choice. Let the other noble families think they were vying only for a marriage bed and a title. Jason knew better. He did not know everything, but he knew enough to quell his curiosity. There were powers at work beyond his understanding.

These were dark days and dangerous times, and not just because the old king and queen had died so suddenly and under such mysterious circumstances. While the other nobles played their little power games, Jason grew ever more withdrawn. While others tried in vain to gain the Princess's attention, even for a moment, Jason spent his time watching and wondering, his mood becoming darker by the day.

"How long do you think they'll be in there?" The sudden interruption startled him out of his brooding reverie; he belatedly recognized the voice as belonging to Trini, Princess Kimberly's friend and handmaiden.

Calming his frayed nerves, Jason managed a shrug. "I don't know."

Trini crossed her arms over her chest, a worried frown creeping onto her face. "I wonder what they're talking about..."

"The power transfer, I suppose. Can't leave the realm without a king."

"I thought they'd already chosen you to succeed."

"The other nobles did. Zordon might have other ideas. I know Kimberly does."

Trini smiled wryly. "I think you'd make a good king."

"I'd have to marry Kimberly," he muttered, the corners of his mouth twisting downward with distaste. "She's like a sister to me."

"Being family means sometimes you have to do things you don't like," Trini countered, her voice as sour as his. "Especially if it's for the greater good."


	2. An Unwanted Decision

The plague had come upon the royal capital without warning. It came swiftly and struck hard, without so much as a hint of warning that there was sickness in the countryside. Commonfolk and nobles alike fell ill, beset by ominous symptoms that were nearly always fatal. And worst of all, no one knew where it had come from, or how, only that it killed quickly.

Among the very last to take ill had been the king and queen themselves. And despite the work of the best physicians in the land, there was little that could be done to treat the disease. The only thing they could do was wait, and try to make their lord and lady as comfortable as possible while they wasted away.

And their daughter, Princess Kimberly, was locked up in her chambers, powerless to do anything at all. She was being sequestered for her own good, the healers told her, quarantined with her ladies in waiting to ensure that she did not contract the disease like her parents. For if she died along with them, the realm would be thrown into chaos and a thousand years of tradition suddenly sundered.

None of which meant much to the princess, even after the plague had run its course. She knew only that she had been imprisoned against her will, cooped up like some prized bird, and now she was more than ready to spread her wings and fly. Through it all, she clung to the vague hope of freedom to come.

But when all was said and done - the plague fading into memory, the funeral rites finally performed, and the caged Princess ready to become Queen - she found herself faced with nothing more than a new confinement: duty.

Its bars might have been gilt... but it was still a cage.

 

 

Princess Kimberly's footsteps echoed loudly in the marbled hall of the royal audience chamber. Each step sounded painfully loud to her ears, the slightest swish of her pink silk gown seemed to reverberate from the every wall. She hated the pacing, but the pent up energy inside her would not allow her to sit still.

Finally, she paused and turned on her heel, spinning around to face her nemesis: the old man. Zordon was ancient. He had been older than old when Kimberly was born, and now he was even older than that, though he showed no signs of impending death. Ordinarily, she would have listened eagerly to his advice even if she didn't intend to actually obey it. But ordinarily her parents would still be alive. The fate of a kingdom would not be resting on her shoulders, at least not hers alone.

But it was. And, to be totally honest, she was terrified.

She needed guidance. She had thought, somehow, that her parents would always be around. That they would be there to help her find the right man to marry, and would guide her in the secret ways of her ancient bloodline.

But they were dead and gone, taken by the plague. She was alone. And she did not like it one bit.

Now, standing before Zordon, she could contain it no longer. The question, angry and selfish, burst forth almost before she realized it. "Isn't there some other way to do this?"

"I am afraid not, Kimberly." He sounded almost exasperated. Or at least as exasperated as Zordon ever got.

They had gone through this discussion over and over again for nearly two days now, and they were no closer to a consensus than they had been when they started. Logically, she knew that Zordon was right. There was no arguing with ancient magic, or with the benefit it brought their kingdom. But it was tearing at her heart.

The same ancient magic that dictated that each generation of the royal family would bear only a single daughter also decreed that she must choose a strong and noble man to marry, who would wield the Power that ran in her very blood. It sounded romantic. Kimberly wanted it to be romantic. But the reality of the situation was that the best candidate for her husband was a man she did not love. At least, not as a woman was supposed to love her husband.

Jason was the noblest of the knights, a young man that was both strong and gentle, powerful on the battlefield and yet wise beyond his years. He was perfect. Except that he was like the elder brother she'd never had.

She couldn't marry Jason. It would be totally gross.

But Zordon was having none of it. Her path was preordained. For the good of the country - yuck - she had to marry. Without a King to wield the Power that protected them, their small kingdom would be overrun in no time by its larger, more powerful neighbors. If she wanted her people to be able to retain their relatively carefree lifestyle and all the freedoms they enjoyed, then she would have to suck it up and marry Jason Scott. Even if it turned her stomach, and even if she made faces at the very thought of it.

Kimberly had started pacing again without even really realizing it. She was running out of diversionary tactics to try, and Zordon was not fooled by any of her excuses. She knew he had everyone's best interest at heart, but it was starting to feel like he was just trying to be mean to her.

Finally, she stopped, screwed up her courage, and said, "I don't want to do this."

"It is unfortunately not a matter of what you want, but what is -"

She sighed. "What's best for everyone," she interrupted, finishing the sentence for him for the umpteenth time. "I know. I know that. But it just doesn't feel right."

"Without a champion to control and focus it, the Power will begin to run amok," Zordon explained. Kimberly scowled at him unpleasantly. It served him right, acting as if she were a petulant child who hadn't heard all this a million times since the day she was born. "Ordinary people and animals will be corrupted and turned against one another, or even into monsters. Eventually the land will dissolve into chaos and be consumed."

"But does it have to be Jason?"

"He is the one best-suited to the task."

Did he have to be so calm about it, as if her future happiness wasn't at stake? She wondered if it would sway him at all if she informed him that Jason was already in love - with someone that wasn't her.

Probably not.

She was learning, grudgingly, as Zordon shoved it inch by logical inch down her throat, that love didn't matter nearly as much as she thought it should. Her job wasn't to worry about her own personal happiness, or that of her closest friends, it was to see to the good of the country as a whole. She had never hated being a princess as much as she did right now.

"There's nothing we can do?"

"Even if another could be found that is capable, time is of the essence. The transfer must be made before the moon has cycled thirteen times, or the Power will be lost."

"I know." And she did. It had been drilled into her head - for all that it never sank in as something that might become her reality - ever since she was a child. Frustrated, she rubbed a hand against her temple. "But that's... that's over a year. Can't I have a few days to think in peace?"

"A few days, yes. But the countdown began the moment your parents died and the Power was unleashed without a master," Zordon cautioned. "There is not as much time as you might think."

Feeling more than a little overwhelmed, Kimberly managed a polite nod of her head before she fled from the room. She knew she shouldn't be frustrated like this, on the verge of shouting or bursting into angry tears, but she couldn't help it. She had dreamed for years of a white knight, a beautiful and wonderful man that would be her husband and rule beside her... but those dreams had never involved Jason.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't just add him in where he didn't belong. It was just wrong.

She was a Princess. She could have anything she wanted. So why couldn't she have her happily-ever-after?

 

 

Trini completely forgot what she had intended to say when the doors to the royal audience chamber suddenly flew open. In fact, she completely forgot she had even been talking to Jason at all when she saw the look on Kimberly's face as she burst from the room. Zordon followed at a more sedate pace, but Trini had already taken off after her friend. From the look of things, the discussion hadn't gone well.

"Kimberly!"

The princess didn't even look back, just kept going until she got to her chambers. Trini followed dutifully, sighing resignedly when Kimberly threw the ornately carved doors shut and locked them. She leaned against the heavy, solid wood and wheedled, "Kimberly... What happened? Come on, Kim, let me in."

"No." Her voice was muffled; it sounded vaguely like she might be crying... or ready to scream.

"Kim..."

There came the sound of footsteps approaching from behind her. Trini turned to look, caught sight of Jason, and shook her head. Taking the hint, he nodded slightly and headed in the other direction. He must have stopped to talk to Zordon before following her and Kimberly. Ordinarily, she would not have minded having him around, but right now she had a feeling his presence would only make things worse.

"Kimberly, don't make me pick this lock." When this elicited no response, she added, "You know I will."

"My life is over."

"Let me in. We can talk about this. What did Zordon say?"

There was no answer. With a sigh, Trini pulled a pin out of her hair, using her teeth to bend the end into a small hook. Kimberly would be annoyed with her for 'ruining' the jeweled hair piece, she was sure, but she couldn't just stand outside and let her friend suffer.

She crouched down close to the door and jammed the pin into the lock. She fiddled with it for a moment, growing increasingly frustrated as the tumblers seemed dead-set on not cooperating with her. Just when she was about to give up, the door flung open suddenly, making an unpleasant crunching sound as the lock crushed the pin she'd been using to pick it, and throwing Trini off balance. Straightening, she came face to face to a very distraught Kimberly.

"It's not like this is just a bad hair day or something, you know." The Princess's gaze shifted slightly, catching sight of the glittering hair pin that was now lodged firmly in the lock. "Isn't that the hair pin I gave you?"

Mildly fearing for her life, Trini nodded.

"But that one looks so cute on you, and now it's ruined! Couldn't you have used a plain one?"

"Focus," Trini urged, wishing that for once Kimberly could keep her attention on the things that were truly important. "What happened that's got you so upset?"

Kimberly frowned, gnawing absentmindedly at her lower lip for a moment before stepping back and motioning for Trini to come inside. As soon as she did, Kimberly flung the door shut again; there was a flurry of activity outside, as the guards who had been watching from a safe distance down the hall went rushing back to their appointed places.

The sitting room, ordinarily bright and airy, was dark and almost claustrophobic. Only a pair of candles had been lit, gloomily illuminating the room as if they were reluctant to do even that much. Trini frowned. This wasn't like Kimberly at all.

"Kim-"

"Zordon's going to make me marry Jason," Kimberly interrupted. She flopped down mournfully into one of the plush chairs that were scattered about the room. "I'm the Princess. I'm going to be the Queen. Can't I just say no, or something?"

Mustering a comforting smile, Trini pulled a chair close and sat down. "Well, you can," she began. "But it might not be the best idea."

Kim groaned. "Even you, Trini? I thought if anyone would see my side of this, it would be you."

"I do." Kimberly gave her a stern look; Trini sighed. "Look, Billy's been down in the archives ever since your parents got sick, looking for something, anything, that can get you out of this. If there's a way, it'll be in the archives somewhere. If it's there, he'll find it. He's just going to need some time."

"I got Zordon to give me a few days, but I don't think it'll work again."

"There has to be a way," Trini mused, half to herself. "He can't be that unreasonable or heartless."

Kim made no comment, but Trini could tell the Princess was not quite as convinced of Zordon's good intentions as Trini was. Then again, Zordon wasn't trying to convince Trini to marry anybody she didn't want to.

Determined to help her friend out of this mess, Trini did her best to clear her mind. She needed inner calm and focus. _Think, Trini, think._ What they needed was a ploy to distract Zordon - and everyone else - and buy time for Billy to find a solution, or for Kimberly to find another man or get used to the idea of marrying Jason. Some sort of diversion...

And with that, Trini thought she had the answer. "Wait a minute."

"Look, I know it's selfish, and I should just stop moping around and marry Jason already," the Princess whined, pouting a little. "I know, it's just -"

"I wasn't trying to say that."

"Wait, you weren't?"

Trini shook her head. "No." Now that she finally had Kimberly's attention, she continued, "Let me get this straight. Zordon is telling you to do one thing, and your heart's telling you to do another thing altogether." Kimberly nodded. "You're supposed to marry Jason for the good of the country, but you're still holding out for a white knight." That earned another cautious nod, so she kept pushing. "So why don't we compromise?"

"I don't think Zordon's going to be willing to compromise."

She shrugged. "What if we make Jason prove he's the worthiest, before he marries you?"

Kimberly blinked.

"Call all the knights to the castle and test them all. Pit them against each other in a tournament, or something," Trini went on. "If there's someone better suited than Jason... you'll be able to find him. And if not... it'll at least give you time to get used to the idea of marrying Jason. And after all the trouble we've had, everyone could use a break. How can Zordon argue with that?"

"Trini..."

"Kim?"

"You're a genius!"

Trini smiled as Kimberly flung her arms around her. "Hey, now, that's what friends are for."

"Yeah," Kim agreed, "But not all my friends are as brilliant as you!"

Trini was kind enough not to point out that several of Kimberly's friends were far more brilliant than she was.

 

 

The plan may have sounded rock solid when she was discussing it with Trini, but that did not stop Kimberly from feeling nearly overwhelmed by trepidation when she finally confronted Zordon with it. Technically, she was the Princess, soon to be Queen, and she could do whatever she liked whether she had his permission or not. But it felt somehow wrong not to get her old adviser's approval before moving forward.

It really didn't help that on the way she'd run into two rather unscrupulous noblemen, who informed her in no uncertain terms that she ought to consider their sons as potential husbands. Flustered and annoyed - she knew the two young men in question as ruffians at best and outright bullies at worst - she finally managed to track Zordon down in one of the far towers of the castle.

"Zordon," she burst out, "I have an idea. We'll stage a tournament. We'll bring all the knights in the land here, and test them all. If -"

"You must exercise caution, Kimberly. Do not act hastily." Zordon's tone was curt, and he looked anything but pleased with her plan.

"I'm planning to!" Kimberly was practically shouting now. Did the man have no faith in her at all? Hoping it might somehow help her case, she added, "Look, Trini's the one that gave me the idea. She thought it would be a good way to prove Jason is the right one, and it would give me more time to get used to the idea - and if there is another choice, we could find it."

Zordon only looked slightly more impressed when he heard that Trini was behind the scheme. He said nothing, and somehow that hurt more than if he had outright condemned her plan.

"Look, Zordon... I have to do what my heart tells me is the right thing to do. I can't marry someone just because I have to. I want my husband to be someone I love, not just the man I marry."

"Just remember that the longer you wait, the more precarious our situation becomes."

"I know. And... if I have to, I will marry Jason. But I have to make sure there's no one else out there for me first."

"I understand. But if you are to carry out this plan, you must begin the preparations now."

And, that easily, it was done. Kimberly could hardly believe her luck; even though Zordon was right, and the work had only just begun, it felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders. For a little while, at least, she could breathe again.

 

 

The preparations were announced that night, and commenced immediately the next morning. There was plenty of work to be done before the tournament could take place, including the tremendous task of seeking out all the eligible knights and arranging for their return to the capital.

Messengers were sent to the four corners of the realm and along every path in between, seeking out even the most elusive knights. Word spread like wildfire. Kimberly's tournament was set to be the event of a lifetime. With each day the plans grew grander and more elaborate, anticipation climbing steadily higher.

Rumors abounded, and began to spread even beyond the small kingdom's borders. In fact, it wasn't long before word of the preparations made its way to ears Zordon would have preferred left in ignorance.

Rita Repulsa looked into her scrying pool one cloudy morning and smiled. "Why Kimberly, you're hosting a tournament?" she murmured gleefully. "What a splendid idea!"

She had been spying on the young Princess from afar for years, secretly burning with jealousy and greed. While Rita had been ousted from her position of power, Kimberly was only just ascending to hers. And best of all, she was practically ignorant of the power that she - or rather, her husband - could command. Rita wanted that power for herself, and meant to have it.

She wasn't a sorceress for nothing, after all.

Her smile only grew wider as she flounced away from the scrying pool and into the tower where Zedd had trapped her years ago when she was first banished. It had taken her a long time to worm her way free of his prison, and though her powers were still weak, she was now more than strong enough to accomplish this small goal.

Against such a weak and stupid opponent, it seemed almost child's play.

"Oh," she crooned, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Poor Kimberly, alone and without a husband! Going to search all the eligible knights in the land, are we? Well I think I'll whip up a nice little treat to help you out."

She would find her own champion, and send him to do battle for Princess Kimberly's hand in marriage. When he won, they would dispose of Kimberly, and Rita would use him as a channel for the new power until it could be added to her own permanently.

And then...

She would confront Zedd, and show him exactly how badly he had underestimated her. She could already taste the bitter sweetness of revenge on her tongue.

But she was getting ahead of herself. First she had to find a knight that could not only fight for her, but win against even the likes of Jason, Princess Kimberly's favorite knight. Her retainers were all monstrous in form, and she lacked the strength to disguise them for long periods of time. She could, however, bewitch a human knight, if she could find the right one...

She had the time to find one, if she started searching now.

Rita opened the door to one of her massive closets, and pulled out her traveling cloak and magic wand. A nice outing would be just the thing. She would have to move stealthily to avoid being noticed, though she doubted anyone would be looking for her. Now she just needed someone to go with her. Where were her men when she needed them? Useless! They were all useless!

"Goldar!" she shouted in frustration, her voice echoing harshly from the rough stone walls. "Where are you? We've got a champion to find!"


	3. Preparations

The sun was high in a cloudless sky, and a gentle breeze blew across the scrub-lands. It was a good day to be out on the hunt. It was also the perfect excuse for Tommy Oliver to head out on his own, with only the company of his dog and hunting falcon, and try to clear his head.

He had not been expecting news that the king and queen were dead, much less a royal summons. But here in the back of beyond, on his family's ancestral lands, news traveled slowly. And, for the most part, that's how Tommy liked it. He had been to the capital as a child and been less than impressed by the crowds of people and strict rules of behavior... give him solitude and the open countryside any day.

Unfortunately, the summons made it clear that he didn't have much of a choice. He was to appear before the Princess and participate in her tournament whether he liked it or not. And he didn't particularly like it.

That was why he was out hunting today - it was his last chance for a peaceful day. Tomorrow he would have to begin preparations for the journey to the capital and the tournament to follow. If the schedule outlined in the message was right, he would be missing most of the end of summer and beginning of autumn for this mess, which was more than likely going to be a waste of his time anyway. But at least he still had today.

 

 

"Ugh, we've been walking forever. Haven't you found someone yet?" Rita groused, pausing to peer through her ornately decorated spyglass. She and Goldar had been wandering in the mountains for days, and while they were now wandering amidst lightly forested foothills, they had yet to run into anyone, let alone someone that would make a suitable champion. She was starting to get angry. And impatient. Moreso than she usually was, that is.

She just couldn't shake the feeling that this was taking far too long. The right champion should have appeared to her already, either in the scrying pool back at her tower or in the sights of her magic spyglass. But there was no sign of anyone.

It was making her downright _cranky_.

And unfortunately, the only person she could take it out on was Goldar. Goldar, who would just put his ears back and take it, and never seemed particularly fazed by anything she said. It was no fun to take her anger out on Goldar, at least not when she needed him around and couldn't turn him into a frog or something.

"Goldar! I asked you a question!"

"No, Your Highness, I haven't found anyone yet," Goldar replied. His annoyance was obvious. But why should he be annoyed? He was the one failing to help her find a champion. It wasn't like any of this affected him.

"You're useless! Why did I even bother to bring you with me?" Rita growled with frustration and peered into her spyglass again. This time, something caught her attention. "Ahhh, I see something. Take a look at this, Goldar!"

She forced the eyepiece against his face and tilted his head upward and to the left. "What do you see?"

"I see a bird. Sitting in a tree."

"Yes, a bird," Rita crooned. "A bird with a bell on it. Idiot! That's a hunting falcon. Which means there's a hunter around here somewhere. This must be the sign we've been looking for. Come on! Let's go find that hunter!"

They didn't have to go far. Rita gave the signal to halt when they were still some distance away, taking a closer look through her spyglass lest they give away their presence. They had practically stumbled right on top of their quarry without even knowing it. The hunter turned out to be a young man dressed in black and green, accompanied by the falcon they had seen earlier, a hunting dog, and a placid-looking horse that stood grazing a short distance away.

He might be young and traveling alone in plain clothes, but she could tell even from this far that he was well muscled, likely knew how to use that sword he carried, and that his finely made clothes testified to his noble lineage. He had to be a knight, which meant he could serve her purposes nicely.

"Ooh, yes," Rita said, smiling wickedly. "I like that one. Goldar! Go get him for me!"

Goldar bowed with an exaggerated, almost sarcastic flourish and took off down the hill toward the young man. "As you wish, Your Rottenness!"

Rita stood back at a safe distance, where she could watch without being noticed right away. The young man had just called his falcon back to him and seemed to be wrapping up his day's hunt; but his dog was watching them, its fur bristling with alarm though it was not yet making a sound. He was totally oblivious to the dog's agitation and to Goldar's approach.

This seemed almost too easy, and yet her luck still held. Instead of making one of his usual blunders, Goldar made sure to come up from behind, and made not even the slightest sound as he went. It was as if this was destined to be.

_Oh, good. A sneak attack. Maybe Goldar_ can _do things right. On occasion._

But no matter how competent Goldar was being right now, Rita knew she would have to do something about that dog before it gave them away, so she said a quick spell... and with a wave of her hand the dog fell into a deep sleep. The man, whose back was conveniently turned, gave no sign that he was aware of his impending danger. Good...

When he saw that the coast was clear, Goldar drew his sword and made his move. Soon it would be time for Rita to step into action, when the man had proved he could hold his own against Goldar and would make a suitable champion. Then she would begin the spell of binding, and grant him power beyond his imagination... in exchange for binding himself to her, of course.

Not that she planned to give him a choice in the matter.

 

 

Tommy became aware of the impending attack only an instant before a sword flashed down into the space where he had been standing. Whirling out of the way, acting on instinct more than anything else, Tommy released his falcon from its jesses and drew his own sword.

When he realized that his attacker was not merely a rogue, but a monster that seemed part man, part lion, and part monkey, it only strengthened his resolve to win the battle.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he demanded, though he wasn't even certain the thing could speak at all, much less understand what he was saying. Still, it looked vaguely like a man, so maybe...

"I want _you_," it snarled, deep-voiced and nasty. "Rita Repulsa sent me to test your worth, young warrior, so fight me!"

"Rita Repulsa?" Tommy echoed dumbly. Who on earth was that?

"If you live," the monster went on, "perhaps she will find you worthy of fighting for her."

The conversation was forgotten then, as the monster pressed forward. He did not seem interested in discussing things, only in killing Tommy. And for his part, Tommy had no desire to be cut down by the monster's sword, and did his best to ward off the oncoming attacks. But this monster, whatever it was, was much stronger than any man and never seemed to tire.

No matter what he tried, Tommy couldn't seem to turn the battle in his favor. He just kept parrying and blocking, buying what little time he could as he steadily gave up ground and tried to avoid ending up with a tree or boulder at his back. Carefully, working slowly but surely, he managed to get turned so that he was heading back toward where he had left his horse.

But he had gone only a few steps when he tripped over the limp form of his hunting dog and went down hard. He brought his sword up to block the monster's next attack, but this time the creature struck hard and twisted its own blade, forcing his weapon out of his grip. The sword arced through the air and landed with a thud in the middle of a stand of bushes.

Tommy rolled out of the way, barely avoiding losing an arm from the monster's next slash, and was on his feet in an instant.

The monster wanted him to fight bare-handed? Tommy couldn't quite suppress a small smile. He had spent far more time training at unarmed combat than he had using a sword, enough to consider it his forte - and with good reason.

"So that's how you wanna play, huh?" he said, launching into a series of fast and well-aimed kicks and punches that almost immediately had the monster on the defensive. But he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up - no matter how skilled he was, it did not change the fact that the monster was wearing a full set of plate armor and he, expecting a quiet day of solitary hunting, was not wearing armor at all, save the thick leather gauntlet he used with his falcon.

Still, even if he couldn't win, he might be able to recover his sword or his horse and make a getaway. He had to at least try to warn the people back at the estate and village. Someone had to raise the alarm that a monster was on the loose, and he would be damned if it wasn't him.

As he worked at pushing the monster back in the direction it had come from, he became aware that it was not alone. Far away, almost hidden between two trees, he caught sight of a strange and ugly little woman. That had to be the Rita the monster had mentioned earlier. It certainly looked like she was up to no good - and who went around dressed like that, anyway?

He wondered for a second if he ought to try going for the woman instead of her pet monster, and earned a blow to the side of his head for his momentary lapse in focus. Between the ringing in his ears and the throb of pain through his head, he knew he had to do something soon or he was going to end up dead. Struggling to maintain his focus, he shifted his aim to the monster's sword arm.

If he could just disarm it or, better yet, steal its sword, he'd have a much better chance...

A lucky kick landed his foot hard against a gap in the monster's armor. It gave an enraged howl and dropped the sword. Letting his momentum carry him forward, Tommy seized the weapon and ran. He had to put some distance between them so he could figure out what to do next.

He was vaguely aware of the woman making a sharp, angry gesture and shouting something in a language he didn't understand. As if at her command, lightning struck the nearest tree, spooking his horse and leaving Tommy reeling. He fumbled with the sword he had only just acquired, half-blinded by the brilliant flash of light, his concentration shattered. Even though the woman was standing a good distance away, he could hear her voice clearly. It was as if she stood right next to him, speaking directly into his ear.

It was distracting. And that was the last thing he needed when he was trying to fight off a monster.

Tommy shook his head, trying in vain to clear it. The woman's voice, which had been rough and ugly just a moment ago, suddenly sounded sweet. Her twisted face and strange clothing seemed somehow... prettier, more noble.

Even as the monster charged at him again, Tommy found himself letting the stolen sword fall to the ground. He couldn't explain the sudden change of heart, any more than he could bring himself to fight against the creature she had set against him. If she would allow it, he would prostrate himself at her feet, and swear his allegiance to her, and only her...

 

 

This was more perfect than Rita had dared hope for. Sure, she had been complaining only a few minutes ago, but luck was truly on her side. The first person she and Goldar had run into had turned out to be just what she was looking for.

He was strong and brave, and quite skilled at fighting with and without a weapon. And those good looks certainly wouldn't hurt when it came time for him to meet and win over the princess. And he had practically walked right into her hands; it was as if this encounter had been predetermined by destiny. Now all she needed was for Goldar to keep him busy while she finished the spell that would force him to do her bidding.

_Yes, Goldar, keep him occupied just a little while longer..._

Rita smiled even as she continued to intone the words of the spell. This young man was clearly a formidable warrior. He more than perfect for her purposes, and it would take just a few more moments to bind him to her forever. With this man to carry out her will, she had no doubt that she would be able to destroy Princess Kimberly and make the Princess's power her own. It felt sweet just to think of taking what she had desired for so long.

She knew the moment the spell began to take effect, for all of a sudden a tremendous change came upon the young man. He threw down his sword - Goldar's sword, really, since the oaf couldn't seem to ever do anything right - and seemed fully prepared to let Goldar take his life.

"Goldar!" Rita snarled, "I need him alive! If you kill him, I'll have your head brought to me on a silver platter!"

Goldar actually stopped what he was doing and, when he realized that she had finished the spell and the young man was under her control, picked up his sword and sheathed it. "As you wish, My Lady."

Rita smiled coldly. She knew there was a reason she put up with him... the moron might be dumb as a rock, but he could (usually) follow orders with some degree of success. "You!" she said, turning now to the young man, "What is your name?"

"Tommy Oliver."

"Tommy Oliver! _I bind you to me now and forever more_!" Rita cried out, not even stumbling over the strange and harsh syllables of the ancient language in which her spell was written.

As she spoke the last word, Tommy's eyes flashed green for an instant: the spell was set. His expression went completely blank, losing even the spark of interest he had shown in her a moment ago, and then he gave a formal bow. "Command me, my Queen," he said, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"Ohh," Rita cooed, giggling darkly. "Yes, you'll do nicely. Tommy Oliver, you will be my green knight. I want you to go enter Princess Kimberly's tournament, and win. And when you have the Crown of Power in your possession, you will kill that no good Kimberly and bring the Crown to me!"

"Yes, my Queen."

 

 

Trini flopped gratefully onto the wooden bench and sighed. "Any luck?"

"Negative," Billy said, without looking up from the book he was scouring. "In fact, I have had worse than no luck. The sudden disappearance of this many volumes is downright suspicious."

Trini frowned. "Disappearance?"

Finally, Billy looked up. He looked more haggard than usual in the dim light of the archives; in fact, he looked about as tired as Trini felt, and they still had a long night ahead of them. "Yes," he told her, "it seems that every book I look for past this point is missing or was never added to the archive to begin with. But what makes the situation exceptionally strange is that only the books - and parts of books - on this topic have gone astray. Everything else appears to be in order."

"That's just plain weird," Trini agreed, picking up one of the heavy tomes and flipping through it. The writing blurred before her eyes, the result, no doubt, of being both overworked and exhausted. She sighed again and rubbed ineffectually at her eyes, willing them to clear. She could sleep later. Right now, Billy needed her help.

"Perhaps you would be better served by getting some rest, Trini."

She didn't look at him, feeling mildly embarrassed. She had come down here to help him, knowing just how enormous a task he faced, only to find herself being more nuisance than assistance. She was one of the few people that could read the ancient texts, but she would do no one any good if she fell asleep at her work. Still, she felt she could put in an hour or two helping out in the archives before going to bed.

"I'll be fine without your help tonight," Billy went on, knowing she wouldn't leave without an extra push or three. "Kimberly will work you to the bone if you let her."

"I know," Trini murmured, "But right now she needs all the help she can get."

Billy knew she was right; Kimberly was expecting a lot of him as well in the coming weeks before the tournament. In addition to his usual work in the archives, the Princess had asked him to oversee the organization of the tournament and festivities. He would be just as overwhelmed as Trini before long. "I'll see if I can find you some tea. It should help you stay awake."

"Thanks, Billy."

 

 

It was mocking her, she was sure of it. The crown was staring at her from its place on the pedestal, its many jewels becoming like eyes in the dim candlelight, daring her to show it what she was made of.

Kimberly scowled.

The preparations for her tournament were proceeding apace. Everything would be ready in just two weeks more, and yet she was still drawn here every night. Every night she spent an hour or more just staring at the crown and fuming.

Sure, it was pretty: wrought of gold and set with fabulously expensive gems in every possible color. But that a simple adornment could hold such sway over the fate of a family and the entire country they ruled... okay, so that part had seemed fine when it wasn't directly affecting her life. But now that it was meddling not only with her life but her prospects of future happiness, Kimberly found herself less than impressed with the trappings of her royal lineage.

Today, something snapped.

"You're just a stupid crown," she said aloud, as if the thing could hear her. Nothing happened, not that she had really expected anything to change. She was talking to a hunk of metal that just happened to be encrusted with jewels and shaped into a crown.

"I'm supposed to give you to my husband... well I don't want a husband. At least, not if it has to be Jason. Why can't I just use this power myself and put an end to all this?"

Furious, she grabbed the crown and shook it, as if to force some sense into it, or demand that it give her the answer she sought. For a magical artifact, the thing was awfully unresponsive. The room echoed with ominous silence, a strange tension that had come up out of nowhere. It was probably just her imagination, but the metal seemed to tingle unpleasantly against her hands, the slight twinges of pain only serving to make her angrier. That was the last straw.

She raised the crown -

\- and could not rest it on her head. It simply wouldn't budge. An invisible force, stronger even than her will, prevented her from lowering the crown and placing it upon her own head.

It just wasn't fair. She could only bestow the power contained in the crown... she could never wield that power herself. She cried out in frustration and flung the crown away. It clattered dully as it hit the ground, rolled, and finally came to a stop.

Immediately, she felt guilty for the outburst of temper. The crown looked small and forlorn lying there on the floor. This was her family's heirloom, the only real thing she had left of generations of her family that had come and gone before her, not just some stupid magical artifact. It deserved better than to be tossed around and left lying on the floor like an unwanted toy.

Without even so much as a put-out sigh, Kimberly went to retrieve it. But when she picked it up, something shifted under her thumb. Frowning guiltily, she leaned closer for a better look.

A yellow topaz that was set into one side of the crown had come loose. Kimberly groaned. There would be no hiding it now; someone would have to know that she had been handling the crown, because this would need to be fixed.

She fiddled with the stone for a moment with one finger, wondering if she could push it back into place with no-one the wiser or if it had come permanently loose. Something, some strange reflection of the candle's light, caught her eye. It looked almost as if something had been engraved beneath the stone...

Weird.

She gently pushed the stone; it shifted slightly, then came free of its setting altogether. As it clattered to the ground, brilliant white light filled the room and Kimberly fell into a dead faint.


	4. Mischief in the Night

It was very late when Trini finally dragged herself out of the archives. To be perfectly honest, she had only left when she did because Billy refused to let her stay any longer; he had promised to clean things up a bit, organize the books so they would know where they had left off, and get some rest himself. She was tired enough to let him handle himself tonight even though she knew he was probably lying about the rest part. It would bother him endlessly to know that there were books missing - and desecrated - in the archives under his watch.

Trini stopped and frowned as she slipped through the heavy wooden doors to the Princess's suite and snuck toward her own small, adjoining room. Something was not right. She had expected to find Kimberly asleep in her chambers... but a closer look revealed no sign of the Princess. Not a single candle was lit, the blankets were still smoothly laid out on the bed and everything was in order, except for the fact that Kimberly was missing.

That was not a good sign. Kimberly obviously had not been back to her room yet... so where could she be? Trini couldn't think of a single good reason for Kim to have gone missing, especially at this time of night. It wasn't like her to stay out so late without telling someone. Tamping down on her fear and cursing herself for leaving Kimberly unattended even for a moment, Trini headed back into the corridor.

This late at night, the castle was always vaguely creepy. The only people up and about were a few tired guards scattered here and there... and ever since the plague had come, there were far fewer of those around, too. In the silent gloom, which seemed almost to close in around the small light from her candle, Trini was glad she had at least some idea where to start looking for the missing Princess. She would hate to wander around this place alone, at random.

Her footfalls echoed ominously as she came to the chamber where the royal crowns and other ancient artifacts and miscellanea were kept. She knew Kimberly had been spending a lot of time in this room lately, and suspected that the Princess might be lingering there later than usual tonight. She slowed and came to a halt. The door was wide open, a pitch-dark maw set in the stone wall, and there wasn't a single guard in sight. Highly unusual...

An uneasy feeling prickled up the back of Trini's neck. She did not want to go into that room, especially not alone. And yet, it felt as if something compelled her to stay. When she became aware of a small, glittering speck on the floor, where such a speck should never be, she realized that something was curiosity.

"Kimberly?" she ventured, her voice unreasonably shaky.

There was no answer.

She briefly wished that Jason or Zack was around to go in there with her, not that either of them were likely to be awake at this hour of the night even if they weren't on an errand for Kimberly. But since neither of the knights were handy, she would just have to check it out herself. Besides, it wasn't like she expected a monster to jump out at her or anything like that; the room was probably empty anyway. Kim had probably just forgotten to close and lock the door behind her.

Yeah, right.

"Kimberly, are you in there?" she asked, half expecting to hear the sounds of movement from inside. But only silence answered her. "I'm coming in."

She stepped gingerly through the doorway, as if someone or something might leap out at her at any moment, but the light from her candle revealed that the room was empty. Or, almost empty.

"Kimberly!"

The Princess lay crumpled on the floor, unconscious. The royal crown was on the floor near her, as if she had dropped it when she fell. There was a candle on a small table to one side of the room, but it had burned out long ago.

Heedless of any danger that might be lurking, Trini raced to kneel beside the Princess, frantically checking for any sign of life. It looked almost as if Kimberly was only sleeping; she was breathing at least, in deep, slow breaths, but otherwise she was totally unresponsive. No matter how many times Trini shook her or called her name, she just laid there. It was as if she were under a magic spell.

The thought chilled Trini to the bone and filled her head with fears of fairy-tale curses.

If magic was involved, she would have to find Zordon. But she hated the idea of leaving Kimberly alone like this, especially when she wasn't even sure that Zordon was still in the castle. It had been several days since she last saw him. What if he wasn't around to help? Worse, what if he couldn't help at all? She had no idea what had happened to the Princess, and was only conjecturing that it was something to do with magic.

"I should never have left you alone," she groaned, even though Kim couldn't hear her. "If I'd been here, at least I would know what had happened..."

She glanced back toward the door, half wishing that Zordon - or a witness - would just happen to wander past. There was no one; in fact, this part of the castle seemed almost eerily silent.

Something glittery on the floor nearby caught her attention. _That's right_, she thought. It was the sparkle that had caught her eye in the first place, cluing her in to the fact that something wasn't right. The artifact room was always kept spotlessly clean. There shouldn't be anything on the floor.

Trini frowned. It was some sort of yellowy-orange jewel. There shouldn't be anything on the floor, much less a big gemstone like that. Where had it come from?

Unthinking, she reached for it. It didn't occur to her that it might have come from the royal crown - or one of the other artifacts housed in this chamber - until she'd already grabbed it. And by then it was too late.

The resulting blast threw her back and away with enough force that for a moment she found herself airborne. For that moment, time seemed to slow to a crawl as heat and pain seared through her body like a bolt of lightning. _I guess I shouldn't have done that_, she thought. But then time seemed to resume its normal flow, and she had no more time to think. Her head hit the ground with a loud _crack_ as she landed. For an instant, she saw stars. And then... nothing.

 

 

Magic was afoot in the castle this night, Zordon was certain of it. It had been skulking about for a while now, a slippery, slithery thing that always seemed to just barely elude his grasp.

But not tonight.

Whatever it was, it was up to no good and he meant to put a stop to it. The kingdom had had more than its fair share of mischief since the old king and queen passed on. The last thing Princess Kimberly needed was a magical troublemaker lurking in her home. She was creating enough problems - and taking enough unnecessary risks - herself.

For now, she was the least of Zordon's worries. At the moment he was focused on the moving trail of magical energy that was sidling to and fro through the castle. He followed at a discreet distance, watching for any sign of activity.

Finally, something out of the ordinary appeared in the darkness: a young woman with dark hair, wearing an elaborate dress and pointed hat. She glanced around surreptitiously but made her way steadily deeper into the castle. After a moment, when he could be sure he would go unnoticed, Zordon crept after her.

They were headed down into a seldom visited section of the castle, which ages ago had been a dungeon, although it had not been used in that capacity in living memory. On and on the old, worn passages went, winding down and down into the earth.

Entering a large, pitch-black room, the woman stopped and turned. She flickered, becoming slightly transparent for a moment. Of course. It was merely a projection.

"What do you want, Rita?" Zordon asked tiredly. He had no desire to waste time dealing with Rita's shenanigans. The sorceress had been famed in ancient times, but had been bound to her tower long ago - and so far as he knew was still bound there - and she could not venture far enough from it to come all the way to the capital. Still, it was worrying that she now had enough power to manage a feat such as this - and enough guts to issue the challenge so blatantly.

"I need you to stay out of my way, old man. I've got plans, and I don't want you messing them up on me."

"I do not take orders from those who would do evil."

"Aw, that's too bad," Rita crooned. "I might be nicer if you went willingly."

"Cease this foolishness," Zordon ordered. "I do not have time for this."

Rita's lips curled into a wicked smile. "I think you'll have all the time in the world for my 'foolisness', Zordon." When the sorcerer made no reply, she gloated, "Look around you, you stupid old man. I've regained most of my old power. You walked right into a trap."

Fire kindled over Zordon's palm, no more than a candle's flame but enough to illuminate the room. The dark stone walls were covered with runes and symbols drawn in white chalk. In the darkest corner stood a young blonde woman with empty, soulless eyes, who held a large quartz crystal in her hands.

"Say good-bye, Zordon," Rita cackled. "The sealing spell is almost complete!"

He felt a tugging on his very soul, and realized too late what she had been up to all along. The runes, the crystal, luring him down to this empty room... it had all been for one purpose and one alone: Rita intended to seal him away, where he could not provide assistance or advice to the Princess or any of the others. Rita was making a move for the crown of power.

And in just a few seconds, he would be sealed away and powerless to stop her.

 

 

Billy was beginning to think he should have just spent the night poring over the tomes in the archive rather than listening to Trini's order to get some rest. The castle was empty, and it was positively giving him the creeps. The sooner he got back to the suite bestowed to him as the head archivist - a new affectation since the plague took his mentor, and too far from the archives for his taste - the better.

He kept his gaze firmly forward as he went, determined to ignore the chaos that had descended upon the castle since Princess Kimberly's decision to host a tournament in order to find a suitable husband. The castle had been all out of sorts lately, with people and things in places they didn't belong; give him the calm, quiet organization of the archives any day. He was much better suited to minding knowledge than dealing with other people. Unfortunately, his proclivities also gave him a tendency to be much more observant than other people.

That was why the darkened hallway branching off to the right caught his attention when he should have just kept walking. Or at least that was what he told himself.

Ordinarily, the castle halls were kept at least minimally lit at all periods of the day, even in the dead of the night. The plague had killed many guards, as well as nobles and other innocents like the previous head archivist, but that was no excuse for this level of neglect. The hallway was almost completely dark, not a single torch lit.

As he watched, frowning and wondering if he ought to report this to the captain of the guard, something else altogether out of the ordinary happened. There came a brilliant flash of light and a loud sound like the clap of thunder; someone cried out, followed by the unpleasantness of what sounded like a human body connecting with a stone floor.

He felt compelled to investigate, his mind filled with different scenarios to explain what he had just seen. He might be able to gain some very useful knowledge by poking around in there... but he knew he really should get Zordon, if the old sorcerer was still around, or some of the guards first. It could be dangerous, and he was no guard or knight, to know how to handle a dangerous situation. He was just a very curious archivist.

"This is lunacy," he said quietly, as if to convince himself. But he couldn't let it go. He knew he had heard something, but the only room down that hall for quite a way was the royal artifact chamber. And only the royal family and their closest attendants were allowed inside. Still, he _had_ heard something (and seen it), that much was indisputable, and it had sounded like someone in distress. A thief? Or someone else? There was a good chance it was the Princess, and if this turned out to be the case, he would be utterly remiss in his duties if he failed to provide assistance.

He made his way cautiously down the darkened hall until he came to the royal artifact room. The door was wide open, a candle's dim light emanating from within. That told him it was likely not a thief, but it was still strange. What would Princess Kimberly be doing up at this hour?

Cautiously, lest he intrude, he peered around the door frame. What he saw shocked him. Trini lay senseless on the floor in a crumpled heap, and Kimberly appeared to have only just stirred; the Princess's expression was one of great pain and confusion.

Throwing caution to the wind, his earlier exhaustion forgotten, Billy burst into the chamber. "Princess Kimberly! Trini! What happened?"

Kimberly groaned quietly and rubbed a hand against her head. "You tell me. The last thing I remember is - _Trini, what are you wearing_?"

Trini curled into a ball on her side, but did not respond right away. Billy watched with no small amount of worry as she finally opened her eyes and sat up. She looked more confused than anything else. And when he took the time for a closer look, Billy understood why.

"I... I don't know."

She was wearing yellow (unsurprising, as it was her favorite color), but not the dress she had been wearing earlier when she visited the archives. It was not a dress at all, but rather pants and a tunic made of loose, billowing material that resembled silk. It was definitely not something Billy recognized. And apparently neither did Trini or Kimberly.

"If I may, I would suggest that we attempt to piece together what has happened," Billy offered. He felt very awkward watching the two women. Something utterly strange had obviously just occurred, and none of his knowledge could explain it. But if he knew what each of them remembered, perhaps he might at least offer a few theories...

"That's not a bad idea," Trini mused. "Kim, you start. You were already here when I found you..."

Kimberly glanced down at her side, where the royal crown still lay. "I was here trying to figure this thing out," she admitted. "I... One of the stones was loose in its setting. When I poked at it, it came loose and I passed out."

"One of the stones? It wasn't -" Trini began.

"It was a yellow topaz."

A stone from the crown... Billy thought back to his time studying in the archives. Years ago, he had done some research into the royal crown and the jewels that were set into it; the thing was fairly crusted with gemstones, some valuable and others not. The largest stones were each a different jewel - emerald, topaz, ruby, and the like - and there was lore associated with each. But it had been years since Billy had read about these things. The knowledge was not fresh in his mind, nor was he able to refresh it with all relevant material having suddenly gone missing from the archives.

But from what he remembered, the yellow topaz was associated with the lands far to the south east, a gift from a neighboring monarch of long ago, meant to instill wisdom and serenity in the bearer. He wondered if it meant anything that this was the stone that had come loose.

"See?" Kimberly was saying. "It went here." She had picked up the crown and showed Trini and Billy the empty setting where the jewel had been. "That's odd."

"What is it?" Billy asked.

"When the stone was loose, I could have sworn I saw something engraved beneath it," the Princess explained, "but now there's just nothing. It's blank. And the stone is gone, too." She groaned. "I hate magic stuff."

"I found your topaz, Kimberly." Trini held up her right hand. A large and impressive yellow topaz was set in an ornate gold ring on the middle finger of her hand, connected to a thin gold chain that went up her wrist and disappeared under the sleeve of her strange tunic.

"Perhaps you could explain how you got here," Billy probed, trying to get the discussion back on track.

Trini looked thoughtful, concentrating. She had spent enough time in the archives to want to be as accurate and thorough as possible in her recollection. "I went to my room when I left the archives," she began, "but Kimberly wasn't there. I was worried about her, so I came here thinking she might still be in here. When I came in... she was lying on the floor. The crown was beside her, and there was this gemstone on the floor. I wasn't thinking. I grabbed it, and I don't know what happened. It felt like a lightning bolt hit me, or something. It threw me backward..."

She was obviously struggling to remember clearly. "I hit my head on the ground really hard," she murmured, feeling gingerly around the back of her head with one hand. "There should be blood or a gigantic goose-egg or something, but there's not. There's nothing, and I feel just fine, other than a little headache. And the weird clothes. Billy, do you have any idea what might have caused this?"

He shook his head. He was mulling some things over in his head, but he had nothing of substance to tell them yet. He was an archivist. Knowledge was his forte, not ancient magic. If only he had access to the missing books from the archives...

"What happens if you try to take the ring off?" he asked.

"Good question." She tugged at it experimentally, but seemed to find no resistance. The chain was thin but strong, and long enough that she could slip the ring off her finger without difficulty. As soon as the ring was off, whatever transformation had occurred undid itself. Trini was instantaneously back in her dress from earlier, although she looked a little the worse for wear.

"It's attached around my wrist," she murmured, gently feeling the chain.

"Can you remove that, too?"

"It," she paused, frustrated, "It doesn't seem to come off. There's no clasp, and it's too small to fit over my hand."

"I'm so sorry!" Kimberly burst out. Trini looked confused. "It's my fault this happened to you. If I hadn't broken that stupid crown -"

Trini shook her head gently. "Hey, I was the one stupid enough to touch something in here. I should have known better."

"Regardless," Billy interrupted, knowing full well that the two women might get into an argument over who was more to blame for this mess, "we must figure out where to go from here."

"We should tell Zordon," Trini said.

"I'm surprised he isn't here already, actually," Kimberly muttered. "He seems to show up every time I screw something up..."

"It is odd," Billy agreed. "The crown is an artifact of great power... I'm surprised he did not know immediately when something out of the ordinary happened to it."

"Maybe it's nothing important then," Kimberly said hopefully, her tone almost questioning.

Trini looked skeptical. "Kim, it knocked you out and threw me across the room. I don't really think that qualifies as 'nothing'."

"Well, there goes that idea."

"It is getting quiet late," Billy said. "I would suggest meeting again in the morning to discuss tonight's events, preferably with Zordon in attendance. As there seem to have been no ill effects, I do not think there is any danger in waiting a few hours."

Kimberly frowned. "If it's not dangerous, then why did it make me faint like that?"

"I would conjecture that the sudden release of power created when the jewel came loose from the crown somehow caused your blood pressure to drop precipitously," Billy murmured. "If that is the case, it won't happen again unless another of the jewels comes loose."

The Princess gave Trini a look that clearly said, 'translate, please', but Trini merely shrugged. "He's right. It's late, and nothing has happened since... this. I think it'll be all right if we get some sleep. It'll be easier to think things out with clear heads."

With a sigh, Kimberly gave up. They parted ways a short while later, after Billy escorted both of them to the royal suite. It would have been amusing - imagine! Him, a guard! - if the situation were not so perplexing and worrisome. Billy couldn't make heads or tails of any of it... yet. But he was determined to find the answer, if he had to track down Zordon himself and ask.

 

 

The country estate was lit up like daylight in spite of the late hour, hundreds of lanterns strung all over the grounds. There were people everywhere. Everyone in the local village had been invited, and even the common folk had turned out in their best attire to enjoy the festivities.

It was the last stop Jason and Zack had to make before they could return to the capital to prepare for the upcoming tournament. It had originally sounded like a good idea - send the fastest knights out to spread the word - but by now Jason had had enough of parties and festivals and well-wishing and congratulations. Some were sincere, but many were not.

There were plenty of men who would kill to be in his position. Thankfully, the lord of this manor and his son were not among them. Indeed, the lord was noble in every sense of the word, and was only sending his son to attend the tournament because of the Princess's requirement that all unmarried knights of age attend. He hadn't even planned this party in advance, but he and his retinue had taken such a liking to Jason and Zack - and Princess Kimberly's plans to liven things up after the plague - that he had thrown open the doors to his estate and his kitchen, and declared that no one in his lands would go to bed hungry or sad that night.

The festivities were still going strong when Jason and Zack stumbled back to the guest room they would be sharing in the manor house; Jason didn't even want to ask who had been displaced to make room for them, though it was obvious the room was not dedicated full time to receiving guests. The room contained two small beds and some sparse furniture, which was just worn enough to tell him that someone lived there. But at the moment, he didn't really care. He was exhausted, his head pounding, and just wanted some sleep. Preferably without having to listen to Zack snore all night.

Zack flopped down onto one of the beds and let out a happy sigh. "Ah, this is the life!"

"Speak for yourself," Jason muttered, lying down on the other bed and covering his face with a pillow. "I feel miserable."

He knew Zack was grinning without even looking. "Drink too much wine tonight, Jase?"

Jason's response was a groan. "A little, maybe. And not enough sleep." Frustrated, he threw the pillow on to the floor. "But I'm sick to death of hearing everyone in the land congratulate me when I haven't even won anything yet."

"Well, you are the hands-down favorite. And you have to admit, Lord DeSantos knows how to throw a mean party."

"He does," Jason conceded. "I'm still glad to be heading home tomorrow."

"Yeah," Zack said. "Me, too. It'll be nice to have some peace and quiet for a bit."


	5. Calm Before the Storm

Zordon glared at the image of Rita Repulsa and, through her, at the young blonde-haired woman holding the crystal where Rita meant to imprison him. He had begun to raise his protective wards, in an attempt to throw the sealing spell back at wherever Rita was casting it from, when a massive outpouring of magic from somewhere in the castle above thoroughly shattered his concentration.

The only thing here with that much power was... the royal crown. But most of the time it was inert and self-contained. For it to release energy like that, someone had to be tampering with it.

It would seem he was not Rita's only goal in the castle this night.

In that case, sacrifices would have to be made. No matter what happened, an artifact of that power could not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Zordon projected his mind upward, through layers of stone and wood until he could sense the royal artifact room. It was there that he laid out his protective wards, enveloping both Princess Kimberly and her family's heirloom with them. These were not the wards of defensive deflection he had been preparing for himself, but of luck and safekeeping.

By protecting Kimberly, he had ensured that Rita would succeed in imprisoning him in the crystal... but if it meant keeping the Princess and her magic crown safe, it was worth it. He trusted to Jason, Trini, and the other knights and attendants to keep Princess Kimberly safe, and perhaps eventually even to find a way to free him from Rita's prison.

He opened his eyes, back in his own body, and realized he had time and energy enough for one last farewell spell. Might as well use it to spit in Rita's face...

 

 

"Goldar!" Rita shouted, unthinking. In her fury, she could think of nothing else to do.

"Yes, my queen?" Goldar stuck his head into the room, grinned widely at the sight of her blackened face and singed hair. Her hat was probably ruined, too. Damn that Zordon! Sending a spurt of flame up through her own spellbook...

She slammed the enormous book shut, sending a cloud of soot up into the air, and hurled it at Goldar. "Remove this from my sight!"

Goldar ducked back and shut the heavy wooden door at the last second. The thick, leather-bound book hit it with a satisfying _thump!_ that reverberated through the walls. Almost sheepishly, the door opened again and Goldar retrieved the spellbook from the floor. "As you wish, Your Rottenness."

"And you, too! Stay out of my way!"

Goldar bowed as he retreated, though from the look on his face he was about to burst into laughter. Just her luck, to be stuck with a servant that did not respect her, barely obeyed her, had a strong tendency toward total incompetence, and was constantly amused at her expense. She would make him pay for that insolence. Just as soon as she finished here and got cleaned up.

Rubbing her hand absentmindedly against her temple - _oh, I've got such a headache!_ \- she walked back over to her crystal ball and peered into it. Pictured within was the young blonde girl she'd enslaved, still holding the large quartz crystal. Only now there was no sign of Zordon and the crystal glowed with unearthly light.

"Haha! I did it!" she crowed, dancing gleefully about the room for a moment. Calming herself, she returned to the crystal ball again. "Girl! Bring me that crystal!" she ordered.

The young woman looked up, straight at her as if she could see Rita through the crystal ball's magic. "Yes, my queen."

 

 

It was very late and Trini was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. Not yet. Not when she had suddenly found herself pulled into the world of magic. She had always known such things existed; how could she not, having been friend and maid to a Princess whose family was steeped in the stuff from almost before she could remember? And yet... until today, it had always been this abstract concept, this ideal that never actually touched her. She had known Kimberly and later Zordon, and had read of magic here and there in the books in the archives, but it had never been a part of her life. It was an outside force, not something native within her.

But now that it was there, she couldn't ignore it.

She held the topaz ring in the palm of her hand, turning it back and forth occasionally, examining it from every angle. And from every angle it looked perfectly normal. It didn't even _feel_ magical. It just felt like a lump of rock set in fine metal, at least until she put it on her finger.

When she put the ring on, she could feel the power flowing through her veins, pricking at her from the inside like fiery needles. The sensation faded after only a few moments, but when it did she was changed. She felt stronger, more resilient, on top of the world.

And her clothing changed as well. No matter what she was wearing when she put the ring on, it changed to match the brilliant yellow color of the topaz. The material was soft and strong like silk, flowing around her. And, it turned out, she could control its form.

It was a discovery she made by chance, while experimenting with the small mirror in her room. She had wanted to see just what happened when the magic took effect - all she could see was a flash of light - only to find out that the results were not the same twice in a row. But if she concentrated while placing the ring on her finger, she could produce consistent results.

_Wait until I tell Billy about this!_

In fact, it seemed that no matter how outrageous or ridiculous the ideas she came up with were, the magic could always match them with reality. From gaudy, elaborate gowns like the ones Kimberly favored to the armor of a royal knight and everything in between, Trini could recreate it all with the magic. And in the blink of an eye, no less.

There were a million possible uses for such an ability, though Trini could not think of a single _good_ one. It seemed like the kind of thing better suited for creating mayhem than doing anything actually useful. And that gave her pause.

No one could touch the crown, except the women of the royal family and the men they bestowed it upon. The magic prevented it: it simply could not happen. And yet this stone had come from the crown, and not only that but it had allowed her to _touch_ it... and then latched onto her, apparently for good. She still could find no way to get the chain bracelet off her wrist. There was no clasp and no conceivable way to loosen it enough to slip it off.

It was maddening. Why would something with no practical purpose stick to her like this? Aside from the fact that very little to do with magic actually made any sort of sense, that is. She was too tired to give it much consideration; she would leave that to Billy. No doubt he would have a theory come morning.

In the meantime, she had one other thing to worry about.

She crept over to the door of her small room and waited. If she listened carefully, she could hear the Princess stirring restlessly in her sleep, if she was sleeping at all. It was probably just her imagination filling in Kimberly's inevitable reaction to what had happened...

"Don't beat yourself up about this, Kim," she murmured, knowing her friend wouldn't hear her, "This isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to me... and I'm sure Zordon will know what to do to set things right."

But even as she said it, she wasn't so sure. Zordon's absence was worrying. She had thought for sure he would show up by now, demanding to know what new mischief was afoot. That he hadn't was scary. She wanted to feel relieved, that the old sorcerer was dismissing it as nothing of importance, but the scared feeling just wouldn't go away.

 

 

Kimberly couldn't sleep. She knew she needed rest, just like she knew she ought to stay in her suite after Billy went to the trouble of escorting her and Trini there... but she couldn't. She lay in bed but could only seem to toss and turn, her head too full of worries to sleep.

She had done something horrible today. She hadn't meant to, and hadn't even really known what she was doing, but it had happened anyway.

"Why do I always have to be so stupid?" she grumbled, not that anyone could hear her. The darkness around her seemed to offer no answers, nor even solace. The room was filled with empty, stifling darkness. Kimberly groaned and threw off her blankets. "I can't take it anymore!"

Getting up, she put on her slippers and pulled a robe over her dressing gown. She needed some air, and opening one of the ornate glass windows that decorated the exterior wall of her bedroom just wasn't going to do the trick. As stealthily as possible, she crept out of her bedroom and through the darkened suite; she considered waking Trini to go with her, but decided against it almost immediately. She had caused more than enough trouble for one night.

It was late enough, or rather early enough, now that the first risers were beginning to go about their business. The castle was still dark and cold and rather unnerving, and although the sounds of life were creeping back in, Kimberly was able to wander mostly unnoticed. She crept through still-darkened hallways and past sleepy guards, but this time she was careful to avoid any room that contained royal artifacts; she was reasonably certain that Zordon would be hunting her down soon to scold her for last night's carelessness anyway. The last thing she needed to do right now was sit and stare at that stupid crown some more.

No, there was something else she wanted to do... someone she wanted to see.

The royal gallery was empty save for the traditional pair of guards stationed just inside the door. Hardly anyone ever came here under ordinary circumstances, much less in the early hours just before dawn. The silence was thick and oppressive, hardly better than the room she had left and not nearly as comfortable... but this was the closest she could get to talking with her parents.

Their images hung on the wall, portraits painted in oil on enormous canvases; her parents' portraits were mounted side by side, and so it went in pairs back through the generations to the very foundation of her family. Right now she did not care so much about the distant ancestors as her parents. She had not come here since the plague took her parents; the mourning rituals had helped, but nothing could have prepared her for the heartache of seeing her parents again, even just in this form. There were so many things she wanted to say to them, so many questions she was now dying to ask, and now she would never get the chance.

She stared up at her parents and very nearly lost her composure.

_How could you do this to me? How could you know all these things and never tell me? How could you just_ leave me like this? It's not fair_! I hate you! I miss you! I -_

"Can you -" She cut herself off, took a deep breath, and spoke again in her best impression of a Princess, "Please wait outside."

The guards nodded in unison and slipped out the door.

Left all alone at last, Kimberly was a breath away from bursting into tears. This was far too much for one confused Princess to bear alone, she was certain of that. Her mother's visage blurred before her as her eyes filled with tears she was still too stubborn to shed.

"You _knew_," she said, accusing, ignoring the tears that rolled down her cheeks in spite of her determination to hold them back. The portrait didn't alter at all. "You knew all about the magic, and you never told me any of it. I don't know what you thought you were doing, but I'm pretty sure I've ruined Trini's life forever now." She gasped in a breath, struggling not to freak out completely. "If you had just trusted me enough to tell me about all of this, none of this might be happening right now."

Her parents stared impassively down at her, their expressions cold and unchanging.

"I hate you!" she burst out. "I hate this! I wish I'd never been born a Princess. I wish I didn't have to deal with this stupid power or this dumb crown. I keep screwing everything up, and I don't have a clue how to fix any of it."

She was met with silence.

"I know I have to deal with it all sometime, and it has to be soon... and I'm going to do the best I can. I just hope it's good enough."

 

 

"Kimberly, are you in here?"

It was several hours after Kimberly's failed conversation with her parents when Trini finally found her. She had wondered in a rather bratty, petulant way how long it would be before someone thought to check the gallery. The Princess felt raw and desperate inside, but she hadn't been able to pull herself away from the portraits. In the gallery's quiet and somber atmosphere, she had finally felt able to really think things through, at least once she had stopped crying.

Kneeling beside the Princess, where she sat curled up on the floor beneath her mother's portrait, Trini pulled her into a hug. "Oh, Kimberly. It'll be alright," she soothed.

"I don't know anything," Kimberly said, sounding completely unlike herself and utterly pathetic to boot. "I broke the stupid crown, and now everything's going to be screwed up, and I've ruined your life forever."

Trini pulled away and gave a small smile. "That's something I wanted to talk to you about, actually."

Kimberly wanted to plead with her not to hate her or leave her, but knew it would probably do her no good. Trini would have already decided what her course of action would be, and there was no way to convince her otherwise once she made up her mind.

"I don't think this is anything dangerous," Trini went on. "At least, not dangerous to me. I have no idea what might have happened when it came free from the crown, to the crown's magic, I mean, but... Here, I'll show you." She fiddled with the sleeve of her dress for a moment; after a minimal fuss the ring, still on its gold chain, fell out from inside her sleeve.

"You hid it..."

Trini nodded. "I sewed a button inside the sleeve that I can loop the ring on so it will stay out of sight. I thought it would be best not to advertise what had happened until we get a better idea of what's going on."

"Trini, you're amazing!"

"It helps that I actually slept last night, unlike someone I know."

"I couldn't sleep..."

"I know, and I understand. But I want to show you what this thing does before you guilt yourself into an early grave." She stood up before Kimberly could protest, took a few steps back, and put the ring on.

Kimberly squinted against the sudden flash of yellow light, once again glad that she had sent the guards into the hall outside, and felt her jaw drop when the light faded. Trini was wearing an exact replica of Kimberly's favorite one-of-a-kind, ultra-ornate ball gown, only this one was bright yellow instead of pink. "What just happened?"

"It can change my appearance."

"I... see that."

Trini slipped the ring from her finger and immediately reverted back to the way she had been before. She put it back on and this time came out wearing the formal attire of a castle guard, tailored to fit her small size and female figure. "It can replicate anything I can imagine. The only limitation is -"

"It's always yellow," Kimberly observed.

"Yes." She sighed and took the ring off again, and left it off this time. "Like I said, I don't think it's dangerous, at least not to me."

"So you think there might be other consequences."

Trini nodded. "At least Billy does. He says it may take a while to see the effects, but he has no doubt that there's more to this than meets the eye."

"Did you show any of this," she gestured toward where Trini had unlaced her sleeve to hook the ring back on its button inside, "to Billy?"

"Of course. He'd kill me himself if I hadn't showed him first."

"What did he say?"

"That he wishes he knew who was stealing books from the archives," Trini muttered, lacing her sleeve shut again. "But anything that might be remotely related is either missing or excised - and not very neatly either. He's beginning to fear we might have a traitor in the castle."

Kimberly wasn't sure what to make of that. What reason could anyone have to steal that information? She couldn't think of anybody that would even be able to get into the archives to do it, except Billy and the other archivists, and she just couldn't picture any of them as traitors to the realm. Spies, maybe. But she still couldn't see any use for knowledge about her family's magic, at least not outside the family. It never really did much, except set the royal family apart from everyone else, and nobody but her could touch the magical artifacts anyway.

"Kimberly... Stop thinking so hard," Trini admonished, drawing Kimberly out of her mental wandering.

"Sorry. I just can't figure out why anybody would want to steal a bunch of moldy old books."

"I'm sure there's a reason, and we're not going to like it when we find out what it is."

"Okay, seriously, Trini? That was _way_ too creepy."

Trini giggled. "Sorry. I'll try to be less ominous in the future."

"I think Billy's starting to rub off on you," Kimberly grumbled. Trini had been awfully serious lately, ever since she started hanging out in the archives with Billy whenever she got a free moment. She knew Trini was only trying to help, but she'd be happy to see a smiling, cheerful face more often than a somber one.

"So what did I miss this morning?" she asked, shifting carefully. She felt horribly stiff and chilled from sitting on the cold stone floor half the night, but knew it was well past time for her to get up and about and deal with the joys of being a Princess.

Trini helped her up before she could even ask. "Other than breakfast? Nothing much. Oh, but the first of the knights have begun to arrive for the tournament, and they're a bit annoyed that you weren't present to greet them."

Kimberly frowned. "Already?" The festivities weren't set to officially begin for another two weeks. At least, she thought they weren't. Things were starting to blur together in her head. "When are Jason and Zack supposed to be back?"

"They're due back tonight before sundown, but that's if everything has gone according to schedule on their trip."

"Trini?"

"Yes, Kimberly?"

"What would I do without you?"

Trini grinned. "Probably have a lot more headaches."

 

 

When Jason and Zack set out on their journey, they were able to travel swiftly and lightly. They had gone at Kimberly's behest, along with several other knights who lived in the castle, to spread word of the tournament. Now that they had finished with their last stop, both were looking forward to heading home.

Unfortunately, their return to the castle was a far cry from their departure. Lord DeSantos was adamant about his decision, and so they made their way home accompanied by fully half the DeSantos household, including the eldest son Rocky and his entire entourage, plus a cadre of cooks and servants and entertainers destined to help out with preparations for Kimberly's tournament.

Jason was sure the Princess would appreciate the unexpected help, even though it meant they would be late in returning to the castle.

On the one hand the change in plans was great, because it meant that they got professionally cooked meals even when they were stuck camping in the open, which the slow pace necessitated... but on the other it was aggravating. With the entire party and all the baggage and carts that came with it, they had to travel so slowly that it would take them an extra two days to get home, when with just the two of them they could have been back at the castle by nightfall on the first day.

The terrain here was rocky and thinly forested, crisscrossed by treacherous paths: easy enough for a couple of riders on horseback to maneuver, but the supply carts were another story. They had to be painstakingly worked along the paths so as to avoid being damaged or destroyed. They wasted more time heaving the carts up precarious hillsides and down into ravines than anything else on the trip.

There was an easier route, of course, but it would take them miles out of their way and take even longer. Or so Rocky had informed them when they set out.

He was a strong and competent young man, who took command very well; the servants seemed to really admire him, and were eager to obey him. Jason remembered him from years ago when they had both been training at the castle together, although Rocky had left after earning his knighthood while Jason chose to stay. He really did not seem to have changed all that much in the meantime.

And, Jason had to admit, that was why it was a bit odd to see Rocky involved in the whole tournament business at all. He would have thought a man like Rocky would have married already, considering how much money his family had and that he always seemed to be surrounded by girls. Now, though, there was only one woman in his personal retinue - a fosterling named Aisha who was also serving as one of Rocky's squires.

She seemed as strong and competent as Rocky, and was one of the first to take charge when one of the carts jammed its wheel into a deep rut and got stuck. Jason wondered if he ought to go offer to help, but held back and waited with Rocky, watching.

"You going to lecture me about the bad luck of having a woman aboard, too?" Rocky asked good-naturedly, following Jason's line of sight to where Aisha was simultaneously giving orders and helping push the cart out of its predicament.

"Nope."

"Good," Rocky said, grinning.

"It's just a little different, that's all."

"Not that different. I learned the trick from you, after all."

Jason laughed. He had assumed that after so long away from the castle Rocky wouldn't remember that, but it seemed that he did; Rocky was one of the few people who knew that one of Jason's favorite sparring partners was Trini, Princess Kimberly's handmaiden. Rocky had only found out by getting lost and stumbling upon them accidentally one day, but he had given his word that he wouldn't tell and he had kept true to that vow ever since.

"It's always a good idea to get an outside opinion," Jason commented when he managed to stop laughing. Zack was looking at him as if he'd lost his mind.

"Yeah," Rocky agreed. "Besides, Aisha likes to boss people around, so it works out for everyone this way."

"She's a good fighter then?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," Rocky said, laughing. "She's kicked my sorry butt more times than I can remember. If I ever get sloppy in my training, she's the first person to let me know."

"Yeah, they'll do that," Jason frowned, trying in vain to hide his amusement. "I swear, women have no mercy."

"You still training with that girl of yours?"

"Trini? No. She's got her hands full with Kimberly these days." He missed sparring with her, and felt a little bit jealous that Kimberly was monopolizing all of her time; he hadn't even really realized it until he picked up on the easy companionship between Rocky and his two squires.

"So it's that bad in the city now..." Rocky was suddenly sober, as if realizing for the first time how delicate the situation was.

Jason shrugged. "Well the plague didn't really make things easier."

"How's the Princess holding up through all this?"

Jason had hoped not to have to answer any questions like that, and had deliberately avoided the subject during the entire trip. But he trusted Rocky enough to at least give him an answer, even if it was vague. "She's a bit out of sorts, but she just lost her parents so it's understandable."

Rocky frowned, but seemed to accept the answer. Jason wasn't sure whether to laugh or fear for his life at Rocky's next comment, muttered half under his breath: "You know, I think it's going to be a scary day when Aisha meets Trini and the Princess..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a companion story for this chapter: _[Food for Thought](http://archiveofourown.org/works/370077)_, which details exactly what Jason and Rocky are referring to in their conversation in this chapter.


	6. The Princess and the Pig

_"The wax of this green candle is bound to your life force. Obey me, Tommy Oliver, or I will light it and when the wax is gone, you will be consumed with it."_

Tommy woke in a cold sweat, uncertain of where he was, the woman's voice echoing in his ears. It was still pitch dark. He felt dazed and disoriented, his heart pounding hard in his chest as the last vestiges of his dream - nightmare, really - faded. It slowly came back to him that he was traveling, camped alone in the forest and on his way to the capital to participate in Princess Kimberly's tournament.

He sat up and looked around, trying to clear his head. Everything was quiet. His fire had burned low while he slept, and he built it back up now. He wouldn't get back to sleep for a while anyway.

Originally, Rita had used dreams to communicate with him, to give him instructions. But after only a few days the dreams had become nightmares. He'd been having them every night since he began to prepare for the tournament. And now that he was on his way, it was just getting worse. He couldn't understand it. He had done nothing to give Rita, his sworn lady and mistress, cause to doubt him. If anything, he had obeyed her orders to the letter.

But Rita seemed disinclined to enlighten him with regard to her motives. And with good reason, no doubt. There was no way he could understand the subtlety of her thought or the precision of her scheming. The only thing he could do was do his best to help her overcome the bonds that had been set on her... and ignore the nightmares.

It would be easier once he got to the capital and got to work. Just a few more days, and then he would prove himself once and for all. He'd show Rita that she had no reason to doubt him.

 

 

Kimberly was officially not happy. The whole Princess thing was not nearly as grand as it was cracked up to be. She had spent the past two days dodging would-be suitors, trying to oversee the final plans for the tournament before everything got started, and trying to figure out what new trouble she had caused by breaking the crown (aside from Trini's newly... enhanced wardrobe). It was, she decided, not easy to deal with stupid magic and its even more stupid rules.

Apprentices and junior archivists scattered out of her path as she wandered through shelf-lined aisles. It was highly unusual for a royal to enter the archives at all, but she was past caring. She wanted to talk to Trini, and she wanted to talk to Trini _now_. And if Trini was currently in the archives, then so be it. She would go in after her.

Let the archivists talk. She didn't care much for the way things were done, anyway. If she had to set the example to change the way things were done, then she would.

Unfortunately, she was beginning to doubt the brilliance of her plan, being that she was now completely lost and wondering if Trini and Billy were down in the archives at all, when she stumbled into an open area at what might have been the center of the enormous room. There were tables and wooden benches strewn with books and, thankfully, Billy and Trini were there.

"How do you ever find anything down here?" she asked. The shelves were all marked, but the symbols were weird and arcane and she had no idea what they meant. And it had taken her _forever _just to find this place.

Billy and Trini both jumped at the sudden sound of her voice. It was deathly quiet in the archives, save for the occasional scrape of parchment as someone turned a page in some book, and she was surprised that they had not heard her approach.

"It's simple, really," Billy volunteered. Trini gave him a look that clearly said, _not now_.

"What's the matter, Kim?" Trini asked, getting up from her spot beside Billy.

Kimberly decided it would be best to just cut to the chase. "You have to do something. I'm going out of my mind with all these _men _around. I can't get anything done without someone offering to do it for me, or handing me a bouquet of flowers or some other totally lame token of love, and -"

Trini laughed. "Kimberly, there's nothing I can do about that. They're trying to get any advantage they can before the tournament starts. You're just going to have to deal with it."

"Can I make a decree that anyone that annoys me is automatically disqualified?"

"If you do that, there'll be no one left in the tournament," Trini pointed out.

Kimberly sighed. Trini just had to try to be reasonable about everything. Most of the time it was one of her most useful attributes. But sometimes it got really annoying. Like right now.

"Why don't you try giving them a chance? Get to know them a little bit before the tournament starts, so you can start to feel out who might be better suited than others," Trini suggested gently.

It sounded like a whole lot of work for a lot of nothing to Kimberly. If they were trying to win her over, they would be on their very best behavior around her, and only do and say things they thought would gain her favor. Which was not exactly conducive to figuring out what they were really like, aside from appearances.

She considered telling Trini that the idea of being with any of the knights she had had the misfortune of meeting thus far gave her a gut-churning feeling of _wrong _and that she rather thought they were all utterly useless, but there would have been no point. Trini was, at least, partly right. She had ordered all of the knights to the castle to compete for her... they would not be here bugging her if not for that. And as their hostess, she probably did owe them some sort of courtesy even if they were driving her insane.

That didn't mean she had to like it. "Fine."

"Maybe we should discuss this somewhere else," Trini suggested.

"I don't see why this isn't as good a place as any..." And she didn't. It was quiet and dark and felt secretive enough, almost claustrophobic down here in the archives... and it was well away from the annoying court gossips.

"Well... You've probably given all the archivists enough gossip for a week already." Trini didn't say it, but Kimberly got the picture. Someone had been stealing material from the archives for quite a while. The only one they knew for sure they could trust to be on their side and show a little discretion was Billy. He had been a loyal friend of both Trini and Kimberly for long enough that he was beyond suspicion, at least so far as Kimberly was concerned.

Unfortunately Billy's unquestioning loyalty wouldn't stop the others from leaking what they had seen and heard, and eventually word would trickle up to the rest of the castle.

"Point taken," Kimberly said, a bit sourly. Trini's rational line of thinking might be unpleasant, but it was giving Kimberly ideas.

Sure, she might have to play the good hostess to the knights she had summoned. And she might have to wine and dine them to be polite. No one had said she couldn't have someone on the inside trying to help her out, to make certain that the not-right knights didn't make it through the tournament. And she had a very good idea of who might be able to pull such a thing off. Maybe she _should _talk to Trini in private...

 

 

With the castle courtyard filled to brimming with villagers come to market, no one noticed when a small but hungry pig wandered away from its owner in search of something to eat. It was one of many pigs brought to the market for sale or slaughter on this day: an inauspicious day for the pig, but a ripe opportunity for mischievous magic.

The spark, little more than a mote of dancing light near the courtyard wall shimmered with glee as the pig meandered closer. The light shifted first one way and then another, fading and brightening in an excited dance before dimming almost completely.

The pig made small snorting, snuffling sounds as it probed the hard-packed ground, looking for a tasty morsel. There was no food to be had over in this neglected corner of the yard, but the magic beckoned.

Closer, closer...

The pig took one more fateful step...

As soon as it touched the dancing mote of light, it began to change...

 

 

"Hey, Trini, will Billy be okay without you for a while?"

Trini smiled slightly. "Kim, I'm supposed to be _your _maidservant, not Billy's assistant."

Her expression darkened when Kimberly said, "Oh, good! That's just what I wanted to hear. We're going to go upstairs and have a little chat, then." But she followed without question in spite of her obvious trepidation.

As they wound their way up from the archives and through the castle to Kimberly's chambers, really one of the few halfway private places in the entire building, the Princess found her thoughts growing dark. Did no one trust her? The answer was obvious, if unpalatable. They didn't think she had any sense. Well, she would have to add that to her list of things that needed to change.

There were guards stationed outside the door to her chambers, so she went all the way back into her bedroom and shut the door as soon as Trini was through it. Hopefully no one had scaled the wall outside on the off chance of eavesdropping on any conversations she might have in her bedroom.

"I need your help," she said.

"With what?" Trini asked.

Kimberly felt bad asking Trini for yet another favor. She had already asked enough of her friend in the past few weeks, but she needed someone she could trust to do this for her. And Trini had one huge advantage over everyone else Kimberly might ask: the magic topaz had given her the ability to change her appearance to anything she could imagine. Including, Kimberly was willing to bet, a knight of the realm. A knight that could participate in the tournament, weeding out unworthy opponents, and getting a valuable second opinion for Kimberly.

She could only see so much of the knights' personalities to begin with, and the fact that most of them were trying to woo her would only make it worse. In fact, it was already making things worse. Or at least a lot more annoying.

"You're not going to like it."

Trini gave her a skeptical look. "Try me."

"I want you to enter the tournament."

"What?"

"Just hear me out, please," Kim pleaded. "You're the only one I can trust."

Trini frowned. "Why not Jason or Zack? You know they'll both look out for you."

"And I'd have to marry them if they win."

"Kim..."

"Trini, _please_. I need someone that can report back to me about these guys. They're not acting like themselves around me," she pointed out. "I need someone to tell me what they're like when they aren't trying to win me over."

"I still don't see why Jason or Zack couldn't -"

"Because they have a stake in this."

"Kim, you can't be serious. Jason and Zack wouldn't lie to you about something like this. If any of the knights turn out to be dangerous or untrustworthy, you know those two will be the first to tell you."

"But -"

Trini sighed. "Look, this idea is insane. I'm sorry, Kim. Look at me. There is no way I can pass for a man, much less a warrior, and do you really think no one would notice that your handmaid suddenly and conveniently vanished every time this guy showed up?"

"Yes, you can. And it's not as if we have to actually commission a set of armor for you. You've already showed me what that topaz can do. The only person who would have to know is Billy." Billy was serving as arbiter of the tournament and was in charge of creating the match-ups and checking to make sure all the entrants were who they said they were. He was not going to be particularly happy with this idea, either, now that she thought about it.

Trini was still unconvinced. "So let me get this straight. For some reason you have decided that Jason and Zack would lie to you to further their chances of becoming King. You know that Jason doesn't really want to marry you, right? He'll do it if it's what's best for the kingdom, but he's not exactly thrilled by the idea. And Zack... really. I know you're busy a lot of the time but have you not noticed how he moons over this girl -"

"Power does weird things to people," Kim interrupted quietly. "It's not that I don't trust them. I trust them with my life. And I don't think they're out to get me, not really. I'm just... I'm afraid, Trini. You're the only one I really trust to look out for me, to think about how I feel, instead of just stopping at 'oh, she's alive, that's good enough'. Jason and Zack want what's best for the kingdom, for everyone else. You're the only one that will be looking for what's best for me."

She just couldn't marry a man she didn't love. The thought of it made her want to curl up in horror, but she could not seem to find the words to adequately explain that to Trini. Jason and Zack were some of her best friends, but they were just... not good at figuring out what Kim wanted or needed. They might be able to tell which were honest and trustworthy, but there was no way they would be able to tell with any degree of accuracy if she would be compatible with any of the knights. The only one that could do that was Trini.

And Trini knew it, probably at least as well as Kimberly did, though she did not look very happy about it. "I need some air." She turned and left immediately, without waiting to be given leave, which in Trini-speak translated pretty clearly to, _I'm really mad at you right now_.

Feeling a strong pang of guilt, Kimberly followed after her at a safe distance. She followed through most of the castle and then down and into the courtyard. Why anyone would choose to go into the courtyard to get some air was beyond Kimberly's comprehension, particularly because today was market day and the yard was much busier than normal. Then again, maybe she had headed here because she knew Kimberly hated it and was hoping not to be followed.

Well, if that was the case, Trini was out of luck. There was no way Kimberly was going to let this end with a fight. She needed Trini's help too much to let this divide them. If it came down to it... she would rather face the alternative than lose Trini's support, even if the idea of marrying some of these knights (worthy or no) made her want to be physically ill.

She let Trini have a few moments of solitude, or what passed for solitude in the busy courtyard, before she worked up the courage to approach. "Trini... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you for that. I've already asked so much of you..."

"I can't say no, Kim," Trini murmured, refusing to look at Kimberly, her tone unreadable. Obviously she had used their trek through the castle to do some thinking of her own. "I may not like it at all, but this is the first really rational thing you've asked me to do when it comes to your future husband."

Kim didn't know whether to feel ecstatic that Trini was agreeing to go along with her plan, or hurt that Trini ordinarily found her judgment so lacking. "Really?"

Trini finally turned to look at her, nodding as she went. "Usually it's 'oh no, I have to marry Jason! That's so gross!' or 'why do I have to get married _now_?' or 'I'm the Princess, why is everyone always bossing me around?'" Trini elaborated, doing an impression of Kimberly that even made the Princess giggle. "But you want me to give you an honest, insider's opinion on which of these knights would actually make a good husband... and I can't fault you for that, even if I don't like that it's me that has to get you this information."

"I'm sorry," Kim said, and she genuinely was. "But I don't have anyone else I can turn to with this..."

"As long as you don't ask me to like it and Billy can find a way to pull it off, I will do this for you. But please, no more favors for a while after this."

"Oh, thank you!" Kim flung her arms around Trini and squeezed her into a happy hug.

Trini laughed. "Uh, Kim, honey? People are staring. Might want to remember your public decorum a little bit better in the future."

"Oh, who cares about public decorum?" Kimberly grumbled.

Trini never got a chance to respond. The courtyard suddenly dissolved into chaos around them, and for no reason that Kimberly could see. Trini stepped back abruptly, her expression somewhere between shock and horror. "What on earth is that?"

Kim whirled to see what she was talking about, only to be confronted with something unspeakable. A pig-man emerged from between two of the market booths, half-chewed food overflowing from its gaping mouth.

"Oh, gross," Kimberly managed, making a face of disgust. Just what she needed: some sort of absolutely nasty monster running loose in her castle. And why not? Just about everything else in the universe seemed dead set against letting her have a good day or a happy life.

Any hope she may have had that the creature would not notice them was shattered a moment later, when it turned and raced toward them.

"Get back," Trini warned, putting herself between the princess and the pig. Kimberly stumbled several steps backward, unable to look away. There was next to nothing Trini could do, except try to provide a distraction to give Kimberly time to escape. But Kim couldn't bring herself to flee and leave Trini in danger. She could only watch in horror as the monster caught Trini by the arm and tossed her aside like a rag doll...

 

 

It was market day when Tommy arrived at the castle. The courtyard was bustling with activity, and filled with people. If he hadn't had a copy of the letter from the royal messenger, he wouldn't have had a clue where to go or what to do. The letter made it clear that he would be welcome to pitch his own camp outside the castle, or else lodging would be provided for himself, his servants, and his animals within the castle. And since he had not brought any gear for a long-term camp out, he first sought out the royal stables.

Wading through the crowd with two horses and a mass of gear while attempting to find a building he had never seen before was not the easiest thing he had ever done. And it only became worse the longer he tried to push his way through.

Something was going on, he realized a bit belatedly. It wasn't that the throng was particularly thick or hard to get through, it was that most of the people were fleeing in the opposite direction from the way he was trying to go. Some of them were even screaming and shouting, but he had been too wrapped up in his own little world to notice.

Interesting.

The crowd was already thinning as people fled out the main gate and across the drawbridge, so Tommy kept pushing his way forward. It wasn't long before he saw what everyone was running from: a bizarre, deformed creature that resembled a pig. A pig combined with a large human. _Very _large. The thing was nearly as wide as it was tall.

It was not exactly the most appetizing thing one would expect to see in a market. And it was bent on finding something good to eat, which amounted to a lot of destruction. It knocked over one of the ramshackle merchant stalls as it raced down an aisle, grabbing whatever looked edible. The flimsy structure must have had a lantern or something inside, because it burst into flames as it collapsed.

The pig ignored the billow of black smoke as the stall was consumed and the blaze spread to the others that had been tightly packed against it. The pig just kept shoving food, or anything remotely resembling food, in its mouth.

With each object it gobbled down, it grew larger and larger until it loomed over the people that fled from it, standing a good ten feet tall. It snuffled its way through the courtyard, overturning market stalls and consuming whatever edible goods it could find. It seemed to have no interest in people, at least not until it came upon a young woman in a jewel-encrusted dress in an obnoxious shade of pink that had to have been the Princess.

She was standing in front of a fruit cart, another young woman beside her, when the monster charged. The second woman, probably a maidservant, attempted to intervene, but the monster merely tossed her aside. When the Princess ran after her maid, the monster went after the fruit cart and went back to devouring everything it could find that was even halfway edible. After a moment or two, it occurred to Tommy that someone ought to put a stop to it. And, whoever that someone was, they would probably impress the Princess a lot by doing so.

_"Win her tournament, win her heart... do whatever you have to do to get me that crown!"_ Rita's command echoed in his head.

Seeing his opportunity, Tommy drew his sword.

 

 

Trini hit the wall hard and fell back with a groan.

"Trini!" Kimberly cried, racing after her. It occurred to her that it was probably a phenomenally bad idea to turn her back on a monster like that, but she didn't care (it had probably been just as stupid to try to confront it in the first place). Trini's safety was more important.

"I'm okay," Trini said, rubbing a hand against her head where it had hit the wall. "Be careful."

"It's not following me," Kim pointed out, as the pig went straight for the fruit stand they had been in front of. "I think it's more interested in eating everyone's food than coming after me."

"Princess Kimberly! Trini! Over here!" It was Billy that shouted, indicating a relatively sheltered spot near the far edge of the courtyard by the main gate. It was hard to see through the thick black smoke that was rising up from somewhere, but from that vantage point they could watch within easy reach of an escape route.

Letting Trini lean on her for support, Kim led the way to where Billy was waiting. She wondered for a moment what he was doing up here instead of in the archives, but the large bundle of fresh parchment he carried seemed to explain it. The latest delivery must have arrived with really unlucky timing.

The pig monster did not seem to notice the humans as they crept past it, much less care. It was too busy stuffing its face with whatever it could grab. As long as they didn't try to interfere with its eating, it was content not to bother them. For now.

Something still had to be done about it, but Kimberly wasn't sure what.

"Trini, are you alright?" Billy asked as the girls crouched down beside him. Trini let him take a look at the bump on her head, but nodded in response to his question. After a brief inspection, he seemed to accept the answer as truthful and let that matter drop. With regard to the monster, however, "What is that thing, and where did it come from?"

"I have no idea what it is, and I don't care where it came from," Kimberly muttered darkly. "I want to know where my knights are and why they aren't taking care of this."

Most of the guards had disappeared during the chaos, and the few that remained seemed unable to muster the courage to attack the creature and were instead guarding the lines of retreat for the townsfolk. The doors to the castle proper were shut tight, and probably barred from within, to prevent the monster from gaining access, but at the same time leaving Kimberly and the others stranded in the courtyard.

_Brilliant. Just leave the Princess all alone outside with the monster._

At least she had Trini and Billy, but there was only so much they could do to protect her. Trini knew how to fight, but in a dress and without weapons or armor it would be pointless. And Billy, while his intentions might be good, was a scholar and not a warrior. And it was fairly clear that they were dealing with magic here, so who knew if even a warrior would do them any good?

Zordon would know what to do, but he was still missing in action. Everyone always seemed to be conveniently absent when she needed them.

But there was one figure amidst the chaos that was not fleeing for his life: a young man dressed in fine clothes of green and black, with a sword in his hand. He alone dared to approach the pig monster, in spite of its insatiable appetite and ever-increasing size.

"Who is _that_?" Kimberly asked.

Trini just stared silently.

Billy followed the Princess's gaze. "Judging by the colors he's wearing and the fact that he is carrying a sword, I would say he's a knight of the Oliver family, probably the current Lord Oliver's son, Tommy."

"He is _really _cute," Kimberly gushed.

"He's not wearing armor," Trini murmured. "This is probably not going to go well."

"Then someone should _go help him_," Kimberly muttered angrily. Where were the kingdom's knights when they were actually needed? She just knew those guys were useless. But oh no, no one would believe her...

But even as she spoke she started to wonder if reinforcements would be necessary. The pig monster - so gross - might have size on its side, but it also grew slower the bigger it got. The knight in green was quick on his feet and even quicker to strike, feinting this way and that while he tried to find the best angle of attack.

Kimberly found herself holding her breath with anticipation just watching the fight - it was a sight to behold. Against a creature that size, the lone knight had to be careful. It would take more than one blow to take it down, where without armor it would only take a single well-placed smash from one of its huge limbs to kill him. And she really hoped he wouldn't die before she got a chance to meet him.

 

 

The castle was a welcome sight after so long on the road. That wasn't to say that Zack and Rocky and the others weren't good company, but Jason was glad to be home. With the tournament looming so close, he needed to get back into his training routine. He had managed to squeeze in a little sparring with Zack, Rocky, and Adam on the return trip, but he could still feel the lack of practice...

He let his mind wander a little as he led the group up the road to the castle. It would be nice to sleep in his own bed for change, to practice on a familiar field, see his friends again...

"Hey, Jase, something's not right," Zack said, urging his horse up alongside Jason's. "I think we better get up there, and fast."

Looking up, Jason saw immediately what had caught Zack's attention: there was a cloud of black smoke rising up from the castle, not to mention the crowd of people fleeing out the main gate, and that was definitely not normal. "You're right. Let's go. Rocky!"

"Hey, don't even think about telling me to stay here and help with the porters," Rocky said, before Jason could even finish what he had been saying. "Adam and Aisha can handle this. I'm going with you."

"Then let's go."

The three knights rode on ahead as fast as their horses could carry them. People threw themselves out of the way, shouting as the royal knights charged past. At first Jason thought they might be angry shouts, but he soon realized that the peasants were cheering them on. Yet another bad sign...

"I never should have agreed to play messenger for Kimberly," Jason muttered. Everything had been fine when he and Zack set out, but now it was all falling apart.

The courtyard was nearly empty as they crossed the drawbridge and passed through the main gate. It was market day, and the yard should have been filled with people and goods, but everyone (or nearly everyone) had already fled. Several market stalls were on fire, which explained the smoke, and at the center of the mess was what could best be described as a storybook monster. There was no sign of any castle guards, only a single young man dressed in black and green doing battle with the beast.

Jason did a double-take when he saw it, scarcely believing his eyes. He reined in his horse, Rocky and Zack following suit just behind him.

"Jason! Zack! Over here!"

He looked to the left to see Kimberly, Trini, and Billy huddled together near the wall. He knew better than to ask what they were doing outside the castle proper at a time like this, but led Zack and Rocky over to them anyway. That spot seemed as good a base of operations as any. There was not a lot of room to maneuver with the courtyard set up for market, so they would need somewhere to leave their horses while they dealt with the monster. How convenient that there were three friends waiting for them, and three horses, though Kimberly probably wouldn't like being given horse-duty.

Trini took the reins from him while he dismounted without question, guessing what needed to be done before he had to give orders. Billy and Kimberly followed suit with Zack and Rocky's horses.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," Jason said quietly. Trini nodded. Turning to look at where the pig was still doing battle with the knight in green, he added, "But that's not. Any idea what it is?"

She shook her head. "None at all."

He could feel Kimberly's glare, though he couldn't see her past his horse. "Could you maybe help that guy first and ask questions later?"

"I don't think he needs any help," Zack piped up. "Look!"

The knight had moved in for the kill, tearing the creature open from sternum to hip with one well-aimed blow. It shrank as it died, reverting into an ordinary pig. No one dared to say it out loud, but everyone knew that magic had to be behind such an occurrence. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen. This was what the royal magic was supposed to prevent. Nothing like this had happened in living memory.

A monster, like something out of a fairy tale...

No wonder Zordon had cautioned Kimberly to move swiftly. With the royal magic on the loose and no one to control it, there was no way of knowing when the next beast would rise up, or what else might wind up bewitched. They had been lucky today. They might not be so lucky next time.

Jason watched with a frown as, heedless of any potential danger, Kimberly hurried over to speak with the knight that had slain the beast. He didn't recognize the young man, but knew already that he must be here for the tournament. While this was certainly an interesting turn of events, he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed that this new guy had saved the day and stolen his thunder.

Trini patted him comfortingly on the arm, but even that didn't help much.


	7. Introductions and Objections

Aisha was not happy at being left behind. Or rather, given "escort duty", as she put it. Adam could feel irritation radiating from her in waves, though she made no direct comment about it beyond an initial angry mutter.

He watched warily as she took command of the supply train, easily keeping the porters in hand as they directed the animals and carts up the road. She set the example for the others, too, ignoring the pressing crowd and all the gossip that had sprung up as Rocky, Jason, and Zack raced past. And though she looked the very picture of a capable Lady, Adam couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive about the whole thing. Aisha was not well-known for her patience - or her willingness to sit back and let the men take care of dangerous situations without her - and he half expected her to go racing after Rocky and the others at any moment. The castle gate was in full view at the end of the road. She really ought to have taken off by now.

But somehow she managed to contain herself, guiding her mount at a pace the porters could keep up with and glancing slyly at Adam when she caught him watching her. Her demeanor had shifted so completely since Rocky's departure that Adam had to wonder what she was up to. There was no way she wasn't concocting some sort of plot in that head of hers - if she wasn't, she would still be acting angry.

"Stop worrying," she assured him. "I'm not planning to do anything... questionable."

"Yeah, that's what I'm worrying about," he retorted.

Aisha rolled her eyes. "I'm telling you," she insisted. "Nothing to worry about here, at least. Now, whatever Rocky's gotten himself into... That might be worth worrying about." She shrugged, as if it did not particularly concern her.

That only made Adam more suspicious.

Although, he had to admit, whatever was going on at the castle seemed to have calmed down considerably. The thick black smoke had thinned, there were no longer streams of people fleeing, and no new ominous noises or sights greeted them as they drew closer.

The castle courtyard was in chaos. It was obvious even before they entered through the main gate. It had been market day, and something had obviously gone terribly, terribly wrong. Stalls were upset or smashed, or even on fire. Goods were scattered everywhere, many of them gnawed on or half eaten.

Rocky, Jason, and Zack were clustered to one side of the courtyard along with a couple of others. Rocky and Zack looked surprised, Jason seemed displeased, and the other two were simply watching what was going on. Another knight, this one in green and black, had just apparently gutted a pig, and the Princess - at least he assumed the woman in the gaudily pink, gem encrusted dress was the Princess, though he supposed he couldn't be sure without seeing her face - was scurrying over toward the knight. Interesting. This time it was Adam that had a hard time keeping the measured pace of the supply train; Aisha noticed, too, and laughed at him unabashedly for it.

He glared at her, but it did him no good. He would just have to get back at her later for that. An opportunity would present itself eventually and, unlike Aisha, Adam could be very patient. When he wanted to be.

So he was grinning too, thinking of future possibilities, when he and Aisha left the supply train to wait and rode over to where Rocky and the others were waiting.

"What's going on?" Adam asked when they were close enough that he didn't have to shout.

"And what's with him?" Aisha gestured in Jason's direction.

"He didn't get to save the day," the young woman beside Jason informed them, her tone rich with amusement. Jason glared at her. He did not look very happy with whatever was going on. "Don't worry, he'll get over it eventually."

Aisha laughed. "I'm sure you'll get your chance to play the hero soon, Jason."

Watching the two women converse, it occurred to Adam that Rocky had given him some sort of warning about Aisha. The fact that Rocky was currently glaring daggers at him pretty well confirmed that he had failed to heed said warning and the consequences would likely be dire.

He furrowed his brow. What had he missed?

Rocky, catching the look of confusion, nodded toward where Aisha and the other girl were talking.

The other girl... Oh, right. That was what Rocky had warned him about. That Jason had some crazy-scary warrior lady friend, and that Adam was absolutely not supposed to let Aisha meet her, lest she pick up any crazy-scary ideas. And that other girl must be the one.

Oops.

He shrugged helplessly.

Rocky looked less than impressed.

Adam didn't understand what he was so worried about. This friend of Jason's didn't look especially dangerous or scary. She was actually rather willowy and even a bit frail looking - not at all what he had expected. Rocky certainly seemed to have a healthy fear of her, though.

Adam decided he would have to ask about that later. When Rocky didn't look so inclined to hurt him in a variety of new and inventive ways.

He tried to keep his expression mild in spite of Rocky's glaring. _Oh come on, man. It can't be that bad. Can it?_

 

 

Kimberly felt almost nervous as she approached the young knight who had slain the pig monster. The only thing she knew about him was Billy's guess at his name... and the fact that he had saved everyone from a monster and managed not to get killed in the process.

Oh, and that he was totally cute and she definitely wanted to get to know him better.

She stepped carefully, making her way slowly across the trashed courtyard to where the knight was collecting his steed and pack-horse. It made her smile that his animals had known enough to stay out of the way, but not to panic and cause more damage. She had such a good feeling about this guy. It certainly helped that he had a body that made her want to swoon, and unfairly gorgeous hair for a man. And when he heard her approach and turned... yes, he was even better looking close up.

"I am in your debt, my good knight," she said softly, doing her best impression of her mother's regal air. She realized halfway through that she had forgotten the royal 'we' everyone had always tried so hard to instill in her speech and wanted to slap herself, but she forced herself to remain composed instead. "You have done us a great service today. May we have your name?"

"Tommy Oliver, your highness," he said with a bow.

Ah, that voice! It sent a shiver down her spine. A very pleasant shiver. "Well met, Sir Oliver," she replied, managing not to sound too affected. She wished that this moment could have been a little bit more private; she could feel the others watching her, and it was making her nervous. And constantly reminding her that she was expected to take charge here.

Well then, fine. She would. But no one was saying she had to like it.

"I'll see to it that you're given rooms in the castle, if that's your wish," she informed Tommy, "and your animals will be given a place in the stables. There's plenty of room. I'll just have to find... someone from the stables..." She glanced around, feeling remarkably helpless for someone who could theoretically do whatever she wanted.

And then all hell broke loose.

The large doors that kept most of the castle closed off from the courtyard in case of emergency creaked slowly open, releasing a wave of people that had been anxiously clustered inside. The castle folk were all quite titillated at the idea of having been in grave danger, and were eager to mill about the courtyard and claim a part of the story.

Kimberly wanted to roll her eyes or scream as the courtyard became filled with bodies. It became almost claustrophobic, with high walls on all sides and people pressing this way and that, trying to see what they could. And, worse, they were all talking at once.

As if her days were not already thoroughly packed with her regular duties as Princess, or the increasing demands of tournament planning. And as the first day of the festivities drew nearer and nearer, her burden was becoming more and more overwhelming. And none of these people seemed to understand, much less care. They were too caught up in the excitement of what had happened. Everyone wanted a place in the tale, for surely this event would go down in history.

Strangely, Kimberly found she wanted nothing to do with it.

She had lost sight of Tommy Oliver in the crowd and muttered a curse under her breath because of it. Stupid noblewomen, moving in on the man she was not yet done meeting - or ogling. And as she was jostled back and forth by idiots too caught up in their wonderment to realize they were jostling the Princess, she realized that all she really wanted was to plead for a day of rest and relaxation. But there was no one to plead with, and if she took a day off nothing would get done and she would only be worse off tomorrow.

Someone had to see to it that the courtyard got cleaned up, that the merchants were reimbursed for the damaged stalls and ruined goods. And somewhere along the line, someone had to figure out how to get all these people to go back to what they were supposed to be doing. That was the tricky part, right there. Especially because there were newcomers and castle gossip thrived on visitors.

She sighed. There was a lot to be done. She had better get started. She scanned the crowd, looking for familiar faces.

Jason, Trini, and the others were waiting where she had left them earlier. That seemed as good a starting point as any; they would help her get the situation under control.

They made their way over to her more slowly than she would have liked, but she knew they couldn't exactly shove everyone out of the way even if it was the Princess calling them. As she waited for them, Kimberly had a sinking feeling that she was only beginning to discover how much of a pain in the butt being a ruling Princess was.

"Time to get this under control," she announced when they were close enough to hear.

Trini and Jason exchanged a quick glance. Smiling, Trini asked, "What do you need us to do?"

It was a rather long list, and there was more to it than she had initially realized. Jason and Zack hadn't returned alone. Rocky DeSantos had come with them, along with his two squires and an entire retinue of servants from the DeSantos estate. It seemed that since they had avoided most of the plague's effects by staying well away from the capital city, Lord DeSantos had sent what help he could with his son. Their assistance was gratefully accepted, but at the moment it only added to the chaos.

Luckily, Jason and Rocky and the others, who were called over in short order once she started giving orders, were more than willing to help her put everything back in order. She was especially glad to have Jason back, because he was good at sounding authoritative and people tended to listen to him (which was probably why they all thought he would make such a good king), and she really didn't feel like yelling to be heard over the crowd.

Slowly but surely, the crowd was coaxed into dispersing, and then an entirely different crowd - the merchants and shoppers who had fled from the monster - were allowed back into the courtyard and a whole new mess had to be taken care of. This one took a great deal longer to sort through, because the pig monster had left the ordinarily organized marketplace in total disarray.

Kimberly gladly put Jason and Zack in charge of the guards, with instructions to clean up what they could and keep things as orderly as possible. Once the DeSantos group was settled, Rocky happily volunteered himself and his squires to serve as messengers, fetching who- and whatever was necessary, and put his servants to work in the castle wherever they could be of use. Trini and Billy stuck close to Kimberly, giving advice and support while she dealt with the endless stream of complaints and demands from the merchants.

It was tedious.

It was _beyond_ tedious.

And it took hours to deal with it all.

By the time the last of the aggrieved merchants was finally gone, Kimberly was about ready to demand that a new Princess be found. She wanted nothing to do with the job anymore.

"Good job," Trini murmured as they headed back into the castle proper together. Billy had been called back into the archives long ago, and Jason and the others had eventually dispersed when their help was no longer needed. But Trini had stuck with her through it all. Even when she had stubbornly decided to deal with the merchants in the courtyard instead of retiring to an audience hall in the castle.

She had to smile ruefully at that. Her back ached from standing in one place so long, and she probably had the beginnings of a wonderful sunburn. She felt miserable. And yet at the same time she felt proud of herself. She had accomplished something today. Something _princessy_.

Too bad she still had a thousand other things to do that did not involve congratulating herself. And since she was the Princess, everyone was waiting on her. She sighed, squared her shoulders, and strode forth to confront the rest of her duties - which today included a super boring fitting with the royal tailor that she was not particularly looking forward to (the man was a genius with fabric, but his apprentice had a tendency to stare and accidentally stick her full of pins).

When she returned to her suite for a quick, informal dinner with Trini, she realized with some surprise that the sun had set hours ago. Being a Princess was a lot more work than it seemed like it should be. But by that time her day was, thankfully, almost over. She had just one more stop to make...

 

 

"Absolutely not."

"_Billy_," Kimberly pleaded, her voice just shy of a whine.

"No," he asserted. "It's a terrible idea and I cannot knowingly countenance it."

The Princess crossed her arms defiantly over her chest and glared at him. "I didn't ask you."

Billy did not let that technicality deter him. "I am one of your appointed advisers, Princess. And as such, I am telling you that this plan you have concocted is not only insane, it is dangerous beyond belief. I cannot in good conscience allow you to proceed without first voicing my concerns."

They stared each other down for a long moment.

"Okay, _adviser_," Kim said with deliberate slowness. "Voice your concerns. It won't change my mind."

"Trini doesn't fight on horseback," he pointed out, determined to be unperturbed by her tone. "She has never fought on horseback. She doesn't even own a horse. If you plan to provide her with one for the joust, you're going to have to explain that, especially if you want her identity to remain unknown to the other competitors.

"Secondly, while I agree that her prowess in battle is impressive, she is much smaller than your knights. It will be obvious immediately that she does not belong on that battlefield. In addition, we have no way of knowing whether she can compete with these men in terms of strength, though I sincerely doubt it. There is a possibility that she could be seriously injured.

"Thirdly," he concluded, "I don't want to know what will happen if it is discovered that you are attempting to rig the tournament's results in any way. Your loyal knights may not be so loyal if they find out that you are trying to dupe them."

Kimberly pouted; obviously he had hit points she hadn't considered. "It's not like the tournament is the _only_ thing determining who I'll marry."

"Only because I insisted on certain safeguards. We can't choose a King based solely on a man's skill on the battlefield." That reminder earned him stubborn silence and a stern look. "If you will hear me out, I do have a suggestion."

"Okay," the Princess said glumly. "What do you suggest?"

"If you must put Trini on the battlefield, ask Jason to take her on as a squire. It's not entirely unheard of, and she will be safely out of harm's way for the duration. And I would be quite surprised if he turned down the opportunity to work with her."

Kimberly seemed unconvinced. "But..."

"But you'd like to have a potential winning card up your sleeve," Billy concluded with a sigh. "Kimberly, I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but it's time you set aside your selfish desires and accept what fate has in store for you. It may not be the happy ending you have always envisioned for yourself, but is Jason really that bad?"

"I _can't_ marry him, Billy," she said, her voice so quiet he almost didn't hear her.

"Why not?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Billy, I can't explain it. I don't know how. But nothing has felt more wrong in my life than the idea of marrying Jason." The look in her eyes told him clearly that she feared something awful would happen if she went through with her advisers' wishes and wed Jason, something far worse than an arranged marriage.

"Have you told anyone else about this?" he asked, trying his best to be gentle. She looked so scared and upset that he couldn't find it in himself to be stern with her any longer.

She shook her head. "No. I tried to tell Trini, but I just don't know how to explain it. I think she understood anyway."

It would be like Trini to understand her friend's problem without words, and it would explain why she had accepted Kimberly's insane charge when such a demand ordinarily would have made her angry. Billy sighed, mentally debating for a moment. Trini had agreed of her own free will. It was what Kimberly wished. It was also insane. But he supposed that someone would figure out the deception even if he allowed them to move forward with the plan, and probably sooner rather than later. There was, of course, still a risk that Trini might be injured in the meantime, but he did not think there would be repercussions for her if she was merely following her lady's orders. The same would be true of himself, were Trini's true identity to be revealed.

Kimberly, on the other hand... Perhaps it would be for the better to let Kimberly stand and face the consequences of her actions rather than trying to shelter and protect her.

"If you can find a way to get Trini the proper equipment for the tournament and if she can be trained to my specifications before it begins, I will admit her."

Kimberly's eyes lit up hopefully. "Really?"

He tried his best to be stern again. "But she must prove that she can compete to my satisfaction, or I'm not going to let you put her in harm's way. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. As to the matter of your fears... I have a theory. While you assist Trini in preparing, I will investigate this." Kimberly looked perplexed, so he elaborated, "It has long been rumored that the royal family bears some gift for prophecy. None in living memory has had this gift, but if the rumors are true, it'll be recorded here in the archives somewhere."

The Princess seemed completely baffled that he would consider centuries-old rumors to have any sort of truth behind them, nodding blankly.

"I will tell you what I find," he assured her. "It may amount to nothing, but it could be that you are experiencing a gift that has lain dormant for generations."

"Do you really think that's true?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. But I'll look into the possibility, if only to set your mind at ease."

"Thank you, Billy."

He nodded absently while the Princess took her leave, before methodically completing his perusal of the volume he had been reading when Kimberly arrived and asked to speak with him. Then he carefully placed the worn tome back into its proper place on the shelf and headed into a different section of the archives.

This section was even more neglected and worn than most. Considering the material housed here, Billy felt that more care should be given to these books; after all, these books held the history of the royal family all the way back to the kingdom's foundation nearly a thousand years ago. There was much in these stories, although many seemed like little more than fanciful tales and legends, that modern scholars - and rulers - could learn from.

He ran a hand carefully, reverently across the leather-bound spines. The writing in some of these books had faded into illegibility, but he still preferred the originals to the copies that could be found elsewhere in the archives. There was just something about old books...

Decisively, he pulled several volumes from the shelf. These were the biographies of Queens. He had read them long ago as part of his training, and recalled these as likely candidates for stories of magic and, potentially, prophecy. He had to admit, this was a foolish time to start looking for such things, but something about Kimberly's distressed demeanor - and the fact that she didn't know _why_ she was so affected, only that she could not marry Jason - had made him intensely curious. This seemed to go much deeper than the Princess's usual motivations. She seemed genuinely frightened by the possibility of marrying Jason, in a way that was out of character for a young woman who otherwise tended to be rather boy-crazy.

It was worth checking out now, he decided, if only to set her mind at ease so she could focus her energy into more important endeavors, like finding a husband and ruling her kingdom.

Billy flipped through the first volume, starting in chronological order, skimming for anything that might be useful. He stopped near the end, where a clump of pages had been cut out of the book with a knife. Frowning, he set that book aside and moved on to the next one. And the next, and the next, his irritation growing with each volume that turned out to be desecrated. Finally, there was only one book left in his pile. He knew what he would find even before he opened it. There was a large gap near the middle where several pages were missing. In a rare fit of anger, Billy slammed the book shut and swore. Whoever had infiltrated the archives had been very thorough.

And they had done it right under his nose. He hadn't noticed a thing.

There were, he thought, only three people who had the knowledge to do such a thing and the unrestricted access to pull it off. And that, he realized with a certain feeling of dread, was a problem. One of them, his master, was dead of the plague; his master's second apprentice was also suspect, but she had been away from the castle for months, caught at her family's estate when plague hit the city and being forced to wait it out there; the third option was Trini. As an undeniably brilliant young woman and the Princess's favored handmaid, she was allowed pretty much wherever she wanted to go. No one questioned her, and no one supervised her.

Personally, Billy considered her above reproach. Being forced to reconsider his opinion of a woman he held in the highest possible esteem was... unpleasant. He didn't want to believe it, but the alternatives - that Katherine had somehow returned to sabotage her master's life's work without anyone realizing it, or that a completely unknown outside party had somehow managed to infiltrate the archives - were just too far fetched. He supposed that it was also possible that one of the lower ranking maintenance personnel or students owed allegiance to some outside power and was merely taking and following orders, but he recognized that he was now just trying to rationalize it in a way that would not implicate Trini as the guilty party.

Billy sighed and wondered just how late it was. Probably well past the hour when he should have been in bed. He would have to get some rest so he could function at full capacity tomorrow - or was it past midnight already? - but he vowed to be more vigilant. It was high time he unraveled this mystery. The culprit was still on the loose somewhere, and he was going to find out who it was.


	8. Keeping Secrets

The days leading up to the tournament seemed to pass in a blur for Trini. She began a new training regimen to prepare her for the tournament. She also acquired a full length sword and a horse, plus the various and sundry other supplies necessary for participation in the tournament. Somehow or another Kimberly had contrived a way for her to obtain such things - and spend a great deal of time alone in the sizable, lightly forested area normally reserved for royal hunting and other outings - without arousing too much suspicion. Trini wasn't going to ask how; the Princess could be quite sneaky when she wanted to be.

This was all well and good, but it left Trini exhausted. Learning to use a lance from horseback and to fight with a sword a good deal longer and heavier than she was used to was taking quite a toll on her physically, especially since she had so few days in which to become proficient. Which in this case meant not falling off the horse with every impact, and strengthening her arms enough that they did not shake under the strain of her new sword. The one blessing of the new routine was that Billy had all but turned her out of the archives. Her duties there were suspended for now; research could wait while Billy worked on assessing the extent of the damage that had been done. And that meant that in the meantime she could more fully devote her time to preparing for - and participating in - Kimberly's tournament.

She was not particularly looking forward to that. Even with her disguise 'perfected' to Kimberly's standards, she worried that she would stand out like a sore thumb. She was smaller and less bulky than most of the knights, although there were a couple of rather scrawny looking exceptions among the younger knights, and her fighting style would be noticeably different. She wasn't trained for fighting on a tournament field, and she certainly was no expert with most of a knight's weapons.

It would be painfully obvious that she was a novice with a lance, in spite of the ingenious training machine Billy had built for her. And she was still far from at ease on horseback. In the other events, she might do better, because she was quite good with short, lightweight blades and was passably skilled with a bow. Her smaller size, agility, and speed would be her greatest assets against the superior strength and durability of Kimberly's knights. But even so, fighting them was not an idea she relished.

At least, she supposed, Billy had taken pains with the roster to ensure that she would not have to fight Jason until well into the tournament, if she was not eliminated from the running before that point. Jason might be able to guess who she really was from fighting her. Then again, he might be able to guess just from watching if they did not keep him suitably preoccupied with something else.

The fact that she was already actively avoiding him, and not being very subtle about it, was probably not helping with that last problem.

She had never really tried to avoid Jason before. It was more difficult than she had expected. He had a penchant for making himself useful when- and wherever in the castle he might be needed, which was a boon for the other servants - a nobleman who did not consider himself above helping out was a novelty - but was quite frustrating for Trini. And worse, he seemed to have picked up on it... and it only served to make him more determined to find out what was wrong. And what was wrong, of course, was that he was going to see through this stupid ploy far too easily. Spending any amount of time with him right now was out of the question. She would just wind up inadvertently revealing herself and ruining Kimberly's plans.

Unfortunately, Jason was not so easily deterred. And he knew most of her hiding places. To truly avoid him, she would have had to lock herself in her bedroom and not emerge until the tournament was underway. Or, better yet, over.

So she was annoyed, but not particularly surprised, when he finally managed to corner her in a dark, often unused hallway of the castle one morning.

"Trini! I've been looking everywhere for you," he said pleasantly. "Kimberly's been working you hard these past few days."

She nodded as noncommittally as possible. "It's been rough getting everything into shape for this tournament," she admitted. "This really couldn't have happened at a worse time." Never mind that it had been her suggestion in the first place; it really only seemed like a bad idea now that she was directly involved instead of helping behind the scenes.

"It'll be better once the tournament's started and the knights have something to keep them occupied," he said, his tone optimistic.

Trini laughed. "Yeah, they never do anything useful around here anyway, and it's worse when they're bored," she teased.

"I should be insulted, shouldn't I?"

"Well I have a feeling you're here for a reason. You could tell me that instead of being all offended."

"I was hoping you'd practice with me."

This close to a big tournament, she should have guessed. "I don't know," she said, hoping against hope that she might somehow be able to hedge her way out of this.

"Please?" he asked, giving her a look not unlike a sad puppy.

"Okay," she relented, "But give me an hour or so first, so I can finish up here."

Jason nodded. "I'll meet you down below in about an hour then."

Trini sighed as she watched him go. She didn't really want to spar with him now, not with the tournament looming and her body already aching from her new training regimen... though she had to admit she hadn't tried very hard to resist. But she couldn't help but think that Jason would have known something was up if she had refused. She had rarely turned down his requests for sparring practice in the past; in fact, their 'secret' matches were probably about the worst-kept secret in the entire castle by now.

She made her way to a small corridor off the main path where she came often when she needed peace and quiet. It wasn't as busy as the main halls, but it wasn't isolated, either. And she could sit on the wooden bench in the corner and meditate without interfering with anyone else.

She stayed there a long time, grounding herself and drawing on inner strength to banish the pain and exhaustion, at least for long enough that she wouldn't seem out of sorts to Jason. She was feeling much better when she made her way down into the so-called secret passages below the main body of the castle. The labyrinthine corridors had once been home to an immense garrison, but had fallen out of use even before Kimberly's parents ascended to the throne. The myriad small rooms, neglected for years and seldom visited, were perfect hideaways for secret activities.

In this case, those secret activities were frowned-upon sparring matches. Trini had started practicing with Jason so long ago she could scarcely remember a time when she hadn't done so. The two of them had discovered the old barracks one day, and appropriated one of the rooms for practice sessions. Now they kept it stocked with dull practice blades and plenty of candles, for use whenever it was convenient.

Jason was waiting for her when she arrived, leaning against the wall near the small rack where they stored their weapons.

"Are you ready?" Trini asked quietly. It always seemed more appropriate to speak in low tones in this place, for some reason.

Jason nodded. "What'll it be today?" He gestured toward the weapons. They had a strange little arsenal down here, but he always let her choose which weapons they would use.

She managed a small smile. "Knives, of course." She had considered practicing with swords, but her hands protested with a painful throb at the very thought. She had earned a lot of fresh calluses, and a few blisters besides, in the process of learning to use a lance and longsword; it would be best to give herself a break before the tournament. And besides, knives were her favorite weapon and she had been neglecting them in favor of her tournament training.

The lightweight blades felt much better in her hands than her long sword or lance. She felt much lighter on her feet, more mobile and self-assured. This was her area of expertise. This felt like home.

When they were both ready, they stood, three paces apart, and bowed to one another. It wasn't much more than a slight inclination of the head, but it was the respect evident in the gesture that was important. When she was a little girl and first learning to fight, her master had ingrained such habits of honor and respect into her, and she held onto them to this day. Jason didn't mind the slight eccentricity. To him, it was just one part of sparring with Trini. Or at least that was how he had explained it the one time she had asked if he thought her fighting style was odd.

After the formal beginning, the battle moved swiftly. They were both quick on their feet, although Trini had a slight edge, and both had years of practice using these knives. Their blades clashed again and again, sending metallic echoes through the empty space. Trini parried and evaded as much as she could, quickly leaping out of the way and forcing Jason to take the offensive. He was doing quite well today. That or she had been overconfident and her strenuous new routine was catching up with her. Finally, he had her cornered so that she could not simply dodge or duck out of the way anymore. She would have to actually fight him.

This time when he struck she had to block. His tactic was pretty predictable, but he had the advantage of size and strength. The overworked muscles in her arms trembled under the strain as she pushed against him, threatening to give out on her as she tried to disarm him. She knew she would have to yield. But before she could, a sharp bolt of pain shocked up her arm. She sucked in a pained breath and backed off immediately. With her back pressed against the wall, she felt impossibly vulnerable. Something warm and wet flowed against her palm. The strain of the fight must have burst one of the blisters on her hand. _Stupid lance_, she cursed mentally, _now is not the time for this._

"Trini! What happened?" Jason demanded, dropping both of his knives to take hold of her hand. Trini sighed. She had been trying for years to teach him not to do that, that someday the distraction of such sympathy for an opponent might get him in trouble, but the lesson had never sunk in. And apparently today was not the day he would realize that he was providing her with a golden opportunity to strike. This time, she didn't try to force the point home.

"It's just a popped blister," she protested, trying to pull away.

But Jason was having none of that. He pried the knife out of her hand and inspected the damage, his expression growing dark when he noticed the fresh calluses across her palm. "This isn't just popped, it's been torn open. What's Kimberly been making you do? Scrub floors all day?"

She tugged her hand out of his grip; this time he let her. "No," she said curtly, slipping past him and putting some space between them under the pretense of putting her remaining knife back into its place on the rack. "It's nothing like that. I've just been careless and pushing myself too hard." She realized with a pang just how much she hated lying to him. "I guess it's easy to do when the castle is understaffed."

"Just be careful," Jason advised. "And don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. You know Rocky brought a bunch of people from the DeSantos estate to help out."

She nodded mutely.

"And you should have told me about this," he went on. "I wouldn't have asked you to spar with me if I knew you were injured."

"I know," she said, eyes downcast. "But I know practicing together means a lot to you, especially before a big fight..."

"It's not worth it if I'm hurting you," he interrupted, his stern tone brooking no argument.

"Okay." She smiled wryly. "Next time I'm dumb enough to get a blister on my hand, I'll turn you down no matter how much you beg."

The scowl on his face told her loud and clear that he did not like her answer. She almost apologized, then paused. It would be better for Kimberly's purposes if she let them part on a sour note; then, at least, Jason would think she had a reason not to attend the tournament. But for her own sake... Agreeing to Kimberly's plan had not prepared her for the reality of fighting in a tournament against trained knights who were bigger and stronger than she was, and the thought of it now terrified her. Jason had beaten her easily just now, and there was no guarantee the other knights would be so gentle. There was a good chance that she could be seriously injured. If he could save her from that... then she realized that she wanted him to save her.

She couldn't just come out and tell him, she owed it to Kimberly not to do that, but Jason wasn't a stupid man. Sooner or later, he was going to figure it out. And the sooner, the better for everyone involved.

"I'm sorry," she began.

"Don't," he said. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault. Just... try to take better care of yourself, okay? Kimberly will run you into the ground if you let her."

"I will," she promised. "I won't let her walk all over me. I'm just... trying to help as much as I can."

Jason picked the knives up off the floor, cleaned them swiftly, and put them all back in their proper places. "And see one of the healers about your hands," he suggested. "So you don't get an infection or a scar or anything."

Trini smiled. "I will."

 

 

The Princess was interested. Tommy had not expected to draw her attention so quickly. He had only been in the castle a few days, but he was never one to take luck for granted. If he already had her intrigued, and he had little doubt that he did, it would be much easier to keep her attention than to let it go and try to win her over again. He would have to tread carefully so as not to appear suspicious, but Princess Kimberly had already given him many of the resources he needed.

She had insisted he be given rooms fitting his station, and he suspected she had contrived to have him placed in a suite that was quite close to her own quarters; he had even caught her lingering outside her door, watching down the long hallway for a glimpse of... someone. Someone he hoped was him. This also meant that his quarters were close to those of the other favorite knights, like Jason Scott. While that might give him an advantage - it would be easy to sneak in and out of their rooms without looking suspicious when his own room was right down the hall - it also meant it would be easier for the other knights to keep tabs on him. And that was the last thing he wanted right now.

Still, on the whole everything was turning out to be a great deal easier than Rita had led him to expect. The tournament would begin very soon, and then he would start systematically eliminating the competition, and not just in the tournament. He would have to do some serious sabotage to tarnish Jason Scott's flawless reputation, since he seemed to be above reproach in the eyes of the castle folk. Everyone thought Jason was a sure winner for the Princess's hand. Tommy was determined to prove them wrong. He would win the tournament and marry the Princess, and get that stupid crown for Rita.

He almost hoped she would let him keep the Princess for himself.

Unfortunately, while he already knew she was interested in him, he had barely seen her since their first encounter in the courtyard. And when he had caught sight of her, usually just outside her door, circumstances had always seemed set against him and he hadn't had a chance to talk to her. He needed to find a way to actually spend time with her alone, to get under her skin. He wondered just how hard and fast he could push her without pushing her away. Would she react more favorably to a courteous man who afforded her and her position every respect, or one that was so smitten with her he didn't care about any of that? He had a feeling it would be the latter, given the way she always seemed to be falling into informal speech when her obnoxious pet handmaid wasn't lurking around to remind her she was the Princess and ought to act like it.

He was pacing the hallway outside his rooms, wandering back and forth almost aimlessly as he tried to decide where to go from there, when luck threw an opportunity his way. He almost didn't notice it, but he heard the sound of soft footfalls from up the hall, toward the Princess's rooms. Curious, though expecting to find nothing of real interest, he headed in that direction.

To his surprise, the Princess was there. She was heading for her rooms, and for once she was alone, her handmaid and guards nowhere in sight. Now would be the perfect time to strike. It wouldn't be a bad idea to remind her of why she was interested in him before the tournament began and other knights might get a chance to overshadow him.

Seizing the opportunity thus provided, he strode over to her as if he had only just noticed her and gave a formal bow. "Good afternoon, Princess."

"Good afternoon, Sir Oliver," she replied. The coy look on her face told him she was aware that they were utterly alone. And there was little doubt she knew that fact would send her handmaid - more like nursemaid - and probably Jason Scott, too, into conniptions. She knew all of that and she was perfectly willing to be alone with him anyway.

He found that he was starting to at least not despise this Princess, in spite of Rita's feelings toward her.

"I hope you're enjoying your stay in the castle so far," the Princess was saying.

"Very much," he replied. He was only half paying attention to the words coming out of her mouth, focusing more on her body language and the fact that she was actually very good looking.

"I'm glad," she said, flashing a brilliant smile.

"The only thing that's been missing is you," he admitted. And it was true. The more time he got to spend with her, the faster this mission from Rita would go.

"The tournament preparations have been keeping me busy," she told him. "But I've scheduled time to meet privately with all the knights soon."

He knew that. The tournament coordinator, that scholar guy, whatever his name was, had given each of the knights a parchment scroll detailing when and where they were to meet with the Princess for an interview. Tommy wasn't interested in that. "Meetings like that are so stuffy," he complained.

"I agree, but that's how things are done," she said with a sigh.

"Isn't there anything else you can do?" he asked. "Maybe find something fun, that could give you a better idea of what a man's like?"

The Princess shrugged. "I asked that. I'm told it's scandalous enough that I want to meet with my knights in private, without a chaperon. As if."

"Do you always do what 'they' tell you to do?"

"Oh, well, no. Actually, I just finished my archery practice," she said, looking sheepish and just the slightest bit flustered. "I know it's not very ladylike, but... I like it."

He should have realized that from the bow she was carrying, but he'd been too busy looking at _her _to even notice what she was wearing or what she had with her. He only just noticed that she was dressed in a fine tunic and leggings - did the woman ever wear anything that wasn't pink? - with high boots and fingerless leather gloves, her hair tied back in a simple tail. The quality of her attire aside, she didn't really look very princess-y right now.

He liked that. And, no doubt, the mysterious 'they' did not. "Do you have any other... interesting hobbies I should know about?"

"That depends on what you mean by 'interesting'," she replied.

"Unusual," he supplied. "Unexpected."

She smiled, a secret, glee-filled smile. Whatever she was about to share, he had a feeling it wasn't something she told many people. "I take tumbling lessons, too. My instructor tells me flexibility is a valuable trait in a ruler."

The answer surprised him. He had expected maybe hunting, or something that would tie into her archery. Not... a street-performer's antics. Still, the mention of flexibility sparked his curiosity. He would not mind finding out just how flexible she was. "Maybe you can show me sometime," he said, the words spilling out before he even gave them any thought.

"Maybe I will," she said, clearly teasing but keeping her gaze steady on his. "But right now I really should see to the tournament preparations... and my other duties." Here, she frowned. "The country won't run itself, as much as I might like it to."

"Of course," he said, stepping back slightly to give a small bow. "If you need help with anything, just let me know what I can do."

"I will. Thank you."

And then she was gone, heading into her chambers and closing the door behind her. The hallway felt somehow less bright, more confined, without her. Weird.

Shrugging off the strange feeling, Tommy turned around and headed back toward his own rooms. He knew he should probably pull himself together and wander down to the practice field, at least to keep up appearances. But he didn't feel like it.

"_You had better not mess this up, Tommy!"_

Tommy hadn't even made it all the way back to his room before Rita's voice screamed in his head, reminding him that she was watching his every move. "Of course, my Queen," he responded, unsure whether he could respond mentally.

"_Don't move too fast! People will get suspicious and everything will be ruined."_

He didn't appreciate the implication; he knew what he was doing. In fact, he was reasonably certain that the faster he made a move the more the Princess would be drawn in. There was no mistaking the attraction he felt for Kimberly, and he was certain she felt the same way. He just had to keep nudging things along. It would be easy. "Trust me, I can handle this," he said, scowling.

"_Well, don't you dare muck it up! I need that crown, no matter what!"_

Tommy considered that for a moment. "Why?"

"_That's none of your business."_

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure he was still alone... or as alone as he could be with Rita in his head. He was. "I think it is."

Rita growled, followed by a long curse in a language he didn't understand. At least, he thought it was a curse. It certainly sounded like one. "_Enough of your insolence. You don't need to know why I want the crown, only that I do. If you obey me, I'll reward you. If you disappoint me, I'll kill you and find another way."_

Somehow, he doubted that. "If you want me to get it for you, you're going to have to tell me why."

She was silent for so long that he thought she might have given up on trying to reason with him. He had just wondered if she had some way to smite him where he stood, in spite of the distance between them, when she admitted, "_I need it to get out of this stupid tower and get revenge on Zedd."_

He didn't know anyone named Zedd, and he was pretty sure she had been out of the tower when she found him and made him her green knight. The resulting burst of anger when he said as much made his head ache.

"_Stop asking stupid questions and just do as I say!"_

"Yeah, okay, whatever. Sheesh."

 

 

Zack was just returning to his room after a particularly rough session on the practice field when something odd caught his eye, or rather, his ear. With the tournament set to begin tomorrow, tensions were running high and he figured he might be making a mountain out of a molehill... but he was reasonably certain that Tommy Oliver was talking to himself.

He paused outside the door and listened down the hallway; yes, Tommy was talking to himself. He didn't seem to notice Zack was there at all.

Their rooms were not all that far apart, all things considered, and they had a tendency to run into each other in the hall on trips to and from the practice field. Tommy had always seemed pretty normal, if a bit reclusive; Zack gathered that was only to be expected - Billy had informed him that the Olivers were traditionally loners, tending to function as rangers rather than ordinary knights. Most of the Oliver men never even came to the capital to be knighted, rather the King or Queen would perform the ceremony on a hunting expedition or a special trip to the Oliver estate. This was the case with Tommy, which was why most of the local knights had never met him before.

Billy had also theorized that Tommy's status as a newcomer was what had drawn the Princess to him so quickly. For her he held none of the unpleasant memories associated with knights that had been pursuing her for days or even years - and he didn't have the near-familial bond that Kim shared with Jason. None of that had bothered Zack, not really. He might be participating in the tournament, but it was only because of Kimberly's decree that all eligible knights attend, not because he cared about marrying the Princess.

Sure, Kim was nice enough and pretty enough that the idea of marrying her wasn't repulsive, but his heart was set on another lady. The thought of Angela made Zack smile in spite of himself, but he quickly sobered. Now was not the time to let his mind wander. He needed to pay attention in case Tommy was some sort of threat.

He didn't dare go closer, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, but he wished he could hear better. If he knew what was being said, he would have a better idea of what was going on here. Maybe Tommy wasn't crazy. Maybe he was talking to someone that Zack couldn't see, who was speaking so quietly that Zack couldn't hear, either.

Even as he considered the possibility, he knew how unlikely that was. It was obvious that he and Tommy were the only ones in the hall.

It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up to think about it. He was alone with a crazy guy that may or may not be dangerous. There were no witnesses...

Deciding he had been spying long enough, Zack slipped into his room, making sure the door was securely shut behind him. He felt so unnerved that he even latched it, then thought the better of it and opened the latch again. Tommy Oliver wasn't some bogeyman. He wasn't even particularly scary. He just... had conversations with himself. At least, Zack hoped that was all there was to it.

He wasn't entirely sure what to do about it. He could try to tell someone what he had seen, but he had no proof. It would amount to his word against Tommy's, and under the circumstances it would look like he was just trying to put Tommy in a bad light before the tournament. And what was he supposed to say, anyway? "Hey, I think that Tommy guy might be whack-o" just didn't have a good ring to it.

He would have to think about it, and keep his eyes and ears open as the tournament progressed... and hope he would catch any sign of danger before it was too late.

 

 

The rumors began to circulate even before the parade of knights rode onto the tournament field. Trini wanted to squirm under the scrutiny of so many people, but somehow she managed to hold herself still and keep her usually unruly horse under control. She did not know where or how Kimberly had got the beast, and although it was well-trained for the battlefield (or so she had been assured) it seemed to hate her.

She was sure everyone would see she didn't belong there. That they would see right through her disguise to the heart of Kimberly's dilemma. But... they didn't.

_No one knows who you are_, she reassured herself silently. And with the full suit of lightweight armor she was wearing, a look completed by a cowl to cover her hair and a mask to hide her face, it was very likely that no one knew who she was... yet. The true test would begin once the tournament was under way, for her, at least.

In the meantime, there would be gossip aplenty. Kimberly was going to thrive on this. No one knew who the mysterious knight in yellow - who had special permission from the Princess to keep 'his' name, origin, and mission a secret - was, which had transformed him into an instant celebrity. Already, he was considered one of the knights to beat. And he had fans, too. Trini wanted to roll her eyes when she heard snatches of conversation from young women, who seemed to already be enamored of the mysterious young man; they were certain he had very fine features under that mask, and came from a far away land on an important mission that somehow involved their Princess. If only they knew.

But, frustratingly, it seemed that none of them were even suspicious... at least not beyond the flimsy story that Kimberly and Billy had concocted for Trini's alter ego. No one seemed to question that she was a man or a knight, and no one seemed to have noticed - yet - that the Princess was without her favorite handmaid. Instead, they theorized about what this mysterious knight might want with their Princess.

It was almost amazing, the way people saw only what they believed they should see.

So Trini sat astride her horse, bearing lance and banner, and no one saw through her disguise or Kimberly's ploy. Billy rode forward and in a loud voice declared the intent of the tournament and dictated the rules and regulations, also adding a list of the first match-ups for competition in the main event - the mounted joust. Billy's announcements were to be followed by an exhibition, little more than a practice session, really, so the attendees could get a feel for which knights were the most skilled.

And, just that easily, the tournament was begun. Today, it might all be in good fun, but tomorrow the fighting would begin in earnest.


	9. Let the Games Begin

The tournament was boring. Kimberly had never really thought a tournament could be boring, considering the nature of such an event and that all the tournaments she had previously attended had been quite exciting, but now that she was the eventual prize it seemed horribly tedious. The tedium was punctuated by moments of alarm and concern, mostly when Jason or Tommy or Trini took to the ring to do battle, but for the most part, the Princess was bored nearly to tears.

Both of her favorites - and, depressingly, Jason as well - acquitted themselves well in the practice runs. Trini faced the brunt of the challenges on the open practice field; everyone wanted a piece of the masked knight, or as 'he' had already become known, "the man in yellow". Kimberly found herself quickly regretting her decision to get Trini involved. Trini might be a skilled fighter under the right conditions, but the tournament field was not one of those conditions. And besides, with Trini around, Kim would not have been limited in other ways: she would have had someone to talk to during the long, tedious days.

She would have liked to join the other court women in gossiping about the tournament in general and the strange newcomer in particular, but Billy had sternly warned her against letting any details slip, advising her to remain silent and apparently impartial instead. Trini could get into a lot of trouble if her true identity were discovered, even though Kimberly was the one that had ordered the charade in the first place. So Kimberly was even denied the heated gossip sessions that the other women her age were indulging in only a few feet from her.

It was depressing just how many things she was not allowed to do despite being Princess. And her daily appointments with the knights were not helping to improve her mood.

Those were Billy's idea originally, and while it had seemed like a good idea and a pleasant diversion at first, Kimberly was no longer particularly thrilled about it. There was really only one knight she was interested in getting to know better, and that was Tommy Oliver. The rest could rot for all she cared. But she had to admit that Billy and Trini were right: she would never know if she could care for any of the other knights if she did not give them a chance.

And since it was not a guaranteed thing that Tommy or even Jason would win the tournament or, beyond that, the right to be King, Kimberly had no choice but to do her duty as Princess and get to know her options. Thankfully, Billy had only scheduled two or three such meetings for each day, so she was not going to be overwhelmed. First on the list was one Sir Farcus Bulkmeier.

The name brought with it a certain sense of alarm; she was positive she had heard that name somewhere before. She almost did not recognize him at first, since this was the first time in years that she had seen him without his friend - more like crony, she thought disparagingly - Sir Skullovitch. When he entered the small chamber she was using for interview purposes, the room suddenly seemed tiny and claustrophobic. He was a big bear of a man, bigger and bulkier than the other knights, a fact which had earned him the rather unpleasant nickname of "Bulk". And on top of that, his manners definitely left something to be desired.

He leered at her openly, inspecting her like a piece of meat even before proper introductions had been made.

Focusing on the stern reprimand from Billy that was sure to follow if she fled without even saying hello, Kimberly forced a pleasant look onto her face and held her ground. She had dealt with this guy, and his far more irritating friend, before. She could do it now. "Good afternoon, Sir Bulkmeier," she began.

He leaned forward, towering over her. "Call me Bulk."

She had a feeling it was going to be a very long night.

 

 

From her tower far away from the action, Rita Repulsa tracked her Green Knight's progress with her magic spyglass. His eagerness to prove himself was refreshing, especially compared to her other layabout men, but she had a lingering fear that he would move too quickly and spoil her plans before they even got started. Princess Kimberly might be an airheaded idiot, but she surrounded herself with intelligent, wary nuisances. Tommy would have to tread very carefully - and get rid of a couple of the particularly obnoxious peons Kimberly kept hanging around, like that nosy archivist and meddling girl-servant - if he wasn't going to muck this up.

And he had better not muck it up. He was a lot more pleasant to look at than Goldar, Finster, and her other lackeys. She wouldn't mind keeping him around as eye candy once she had the crown and had taken her revenge from Lord Zedd.

But in the meantime, she supposed she would just have to help him in whatever way she could, to make doubly sure he would not fail her. She had already seen the powerful effects from the magic that had been loosed upon the kingdom with the death of Kimberly's parents. The wild magic had created a monster... only a small one, to be honest, but it had given Rita an idea.

She still had much power herself, even though Zedd had stripped her of most of it when he imprisoned her in the tower. Creating a monster was not so difficult a task, not compared to the brilliant way she had imprisoned Zordon within a crystal. And his timely defeat of the last monster had earned Tommy the esteem of not only the Princess but the other knights. Well, except Zordon's favorite, Jason Scott, who had looked decidedly displeased by Tommy's success.

Jason's jealousy only filled Rita with glee. True to form, he was a total do-gooder. And as such, he deserved every bit of pain and suffering she could throw his way.

It stood to reason that sending a monster of her own to terrorize the Princess and her people would not only cause more chaos for the Princess but give Tommy another opportunity to win her over. And that would put him one step closer to getting that magic crown for Rita. The sorceress smiled and turned away from her spyglass.

"Finster!" she shouted, even as she searched her massive shelves for just the right spell book. "I'm going to need a monster!"

 

 

The night seemed to drag on interminably. Kimberly's meetings all went on far longer than even Billy had expected - the list of questions Billy had given her to ask was a mile long, and she had a few of her own she wanted included - and it had left the Princess feeling rather the worse for wear.

Her knights were _awful_. Apparently most of them, or at least the ones that were young and unattached, had not the slightest inclination to learn about the laws of the land, nor how the country was run. They were only interested in the power given to the King. And on top of that, they were either old or ugly or completely lacking manners, or some combination of the three. Even hours later, she still shuddered when she remembered being shut in a tiny room with Sir Farcus Bulkmeier for any amount of time. And her meeting with his crony, Sir Skullovitch, was still on the schedule.

Kimberly wanted to die, to go find someone willing to just put her out of her misery, since her friends weren't kind enough to do so.

She sighed, and summoned enough energy to go order the kitchens to send dinner up to her chambers. Then she lugged the massive pile of notes she had taken during her interviews up to her chambers, tossed them onto a handy table, and indulged in a quick bath. She was glad at least to wash away the grime of the day... and that neither Trini nor Billy had yet showed up to hound her or scold her for some new imagined misbehavior or breach of decorum.

She sincerely hoped that Zack, her last meeting of the day, would put in a good word for her. The interview with Zack had been the day's one saving grace, she thought. He was cute and funny, and beyond charming when he put his mind to it, and best of all - she wasn't entirely opposed to the idea of spending time with him. It wouldn't have been so bad to wind up marrying Zack, if she couldn't have someone new and intriguing like Tommy Oliver.

Even as she let the traitorous thought slip through, her heart seemed to cry out at the idea, as if it were a totally separate being from her mind. It was a disconcerting feeling, but one she was becoming increasingly accustomed to as the days passed and it became more and more insistent. She had not told anyone about it yet, beyond a few faltering attempts that had left her no better off than before; how could she explain it, when she could scarcely wrap her mind around it?

She had to face the facts: her heart yearned for Tommy Oliver, and it railed fiercely against any logic she might use to reason with it. Trini could tell her a thousand times that the mind dictated what the heart wanted - yeah, right - and Kimberly would always be just as certain that it would never be true. Didn't Trini, or anyone else, realize that if she could do that, she would have already accepted the inevitability of marrying Jason and saved everyone all this fuss?

And besides, she thought rather bitterly as she emerged from the bathing room, Trini was all talk anyway. She could pretend she wasn't in love with Jason Scott all she wanted and it would never be more than an act. An act, Kimberly might add, that had been pathetically transparent to begin with and really just needed to stop already. There was absolutely no way the so-called 'training sessions' those two engaged in underneath the castle were anything but romantic trysts, and it would have made Kimberly's life so much easier if Jason and Trini would just publicly admit their feelings and get married.

Aware that her thoughts were taking a very dark turn, Kimberly made no attempt to stop it. She wondered just how badly Jason wanted to be King, that he was willing to give up Trini and marry her instead to get it. That made her even less inclined to wed him. She remembered with some displeasure the mistresses her father had taken over the years, and how her mother simply turned a blind eye; she intended to allow her husband, whoever he turned out to be, no such infidelities. Not even if the mistress was Trini.

Maybe that was why she was so dead-set against marrying Jason, she thought. She already knew his heart belonged to another. But even that rationalization - or pretending that Jason and Trini were, as they insisted, not in love with each other - did little to quell the uneasy feeling in her gut. But if that wasn't it, she didn't know what was.

The room was oppressively silent as Kimberly picked at her food, which had been delivered while she was in the bath and had probably at one time been warm and delicious. But by the time she got around to eating it, it had cooled to room temperature and seemed tasteless and bland.

She left the dishes and half-eaten food for the servants to clean up in the morning, checked to see if Trini was in her tiny, adjoining room (she was, and fast asleep at that), and dragged herself into her bedchamber. She was too tired to do more than change into a sleeping gown and crawl into bed. Exhausted by the long and frustrating day, Kimberly was asleep almost as soon as she laid her head down on the pillow.

 

 

Morning dawned bright and early, and it brought chaos with it. Something, Kimberly was made to understand when the guards would not let her out of her chamber, was in the castle. The truly infuriating part was that not only had Trini already made her escape, leaving Kimberly to deal with the crisis alone, but the guards couldn't seem to tell her what, exactly, the something was. All they knew was that it was something dangerous and entirely unnatural and the castle had been placed under lockdown until it could be located and dealt with.

Kimberly did not like the sound of that. Nor did she appreciate the fact that her tournament would have to wait until after this new mess was taken care of, or that someone - most likely Jason - had taken control of the situation without even consulting her. And considering that the guards stationed outside her chambers did not even know what was going on, Kimberly did not hold out much hope that the situation would be resolved quickly.

So she got dressed and, having nothing else to do, sat on one of the couches in her sitting room and brushed her hair. And pouted.

But when she actually thought about it, the castle was actually strangely silent this morning. That only compounded her frustration. She hated being cooped up with nothing to do, particularly after all the time she had already spent in quarantine after her parents took ill with the plague. Surely there was something she could do to help...

As if in answer to her prayers for a quick solution, or at least for something to happen, she soon heard ominous noises coming from the hallway outside her chambers. The rumbling she had first heard was soon followed by an unsettling, eerie sound that resembled gurgling laughter.

Kimberly froze, straining to hear more.

For a long time she heard only silence, until she began to doubt that she had truly heard anything unusual at all. And then the laughing sound came again, much closer this time, accompanied by a low gurgling sound and the systematic opening and slamming of doors. Reflexively, Kimberly rose and checked that her door was locked. There were two guards posted outside her door, as always, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

One of the guards shouted something. He never finished what he had intended to say. Horrified, Kimberly could hear the sounds of a scuffle through the door. One of the guards made a wet grunting sound.

There was silence for a moment.

Someone - or some_thing_ \- tried the knob on the door. When that failed to grant access, the timbers of the door began to groan as whoever was outside leaned heavily against it. And then it stopped.

Kimberly let out a breath and hoped that would be the end of it.

But it wasn't. A moment later, something struck the door with impossible force. The lock gave way and the door rushed inward, slamming so hard against the wall that Kimberly was surprised it didn't come off its hinges. What stood on the threshold nearly made the Princess gag. It was taller than a man, and roughly shaped the same, but it was also unmistakably a frog. Or a toad of some sort. It had green-brown skin, a wide mouth, enormous round eyes, webbed feet and hands tipped with dangerous looking claws, and the whole thing was covered in glistening slime. It was possibly the single grossest thing Kimberly had seen in her entire life.

So much so that she almost did not notice that one of its clawed hands dripped blood. The scuffle she had heard... she realized immediately that the guards were dead. Killed, trying in vain to protect her from this, this _thing_. Backing up slowly, she wondered if locking herself in the bedchamber would help, and found herself wishing that she had her bow and arrows ready.

The frog beast locked its eyes on her and cackled with glee. "Prrrrincess!" it gurgled, ending on a grotesque ribbit. She backed up faster, hoping this was just a horrible dream, but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped, and a horrible, icky monster was coming after her.

Where were her knights when she actually needed them?

Kimberly shrieked in horror as the monster scooped her up with one arm and slung her over its sticky-slimy shoulder. The next thing she knew, it had demolished half the exterior wall of her bedroom and leaped out, propelled by powerful legs into the open air. It was thirty feet or better to the courtyard below, and Kimberly made sure to voice her displeasure - loudly - all the way down (maybe deafening it would help!), but the monster landed as easily as if it had never left the ground and paid no heed to her angry shouting.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Let me go!" Kimberly wailed. She briefly considered pounding her fists against its back, but that would have meant deliberately touching it. And she was not quite distressed enough to attempt _that_.

"Put her down."

That voice... it sent a shiver down her spine. Tommy!

The monster gave a deep belly laugh, jogging her uncomfortably as its shoulders shook. "Ahaha, she's going to turn me into a prrrrince ribbit!"

Oh, _gross_. Although she had heard the fairy stories like every child, she didn't even want to know how that was supposed to work. Kimberly squirmed, ramming her knee as hard as she could into what should have been the creature's rib cage. It didn't seem to have any effect. Then again, this thing had effortlessly made a hole in a stone wall over a foot thick. What hope did she possibly have of getting it to release her?

She heard the unmistakable ring of steel; Tommy had drawn his sword. "I said, _put her down_."

The monster laughed again. "You fight me for herrrrr ribbit?"

She almost didn't want him to do it. That thing could probably kill him just by looking at him. But it was too late.

"Put her down, and I'll fight you."

It didn't just put her down. In spite of its apparent concern with finding itself a princess to turn it into a prince, like the age-old fairy tale, it practically tossed her aside. Proving that her tumbling lessons had not been in vain, Kimberly rolled easily out of her fall and was back on her feet in an instant. And then Trini was there, strong hands steadying her as she stared. She nearly sagged with relief. If Trini was there, it meant that Jason and Zack and the other knights would arrive soon.

She was suddenly glad she'd had the foresight to get dressed before everything went crazy. It would have added insult to injury to be kidnapped and dragged into the courtyard wearing nothing but her nightgown.

"Are you okay?" Trini asked.

Kimberly nodded, feeling slightly numb.

Jason and Zack arrived in a rush, accompanied by several of the castle guards. Obviously they had been tracking the creature as it made its way through the castle, but they had been forced to come down the long way rather than simply jumping, as it had.

"Kimberly, are you okay?" Jason demanded.

Already sick of the question, Kimberly nodded again. "I'm fine."

After taking a moment to appraise the situation, Jason reached for his sword. Zack followed suit a moment later.

"Stop, it's a duel," Trini told them quietly. "We shouldn't interfere unless we have to."

Kimberly had somehow forgotten about Trini's damnable sense of honor. And while she ordinarily would have admired that particular trait, she currently felt that it was all well and good to honor the rules of single combat... when no one's life was on the line. Didn't Trini care that Tommy was in mortal danger?

"Isn't there anything we can do?" She couldn't seem to take her eyes off Tommy... or keep her heart from pounding erratically.

"Jason and Zack are right here if he needs help," Trini assured her, at the same time as Jason pointed out that, "Yeah, we can get you out of here."

"No way," she protested. "I am not going anywhere."

Jason gave her a look that begged to differ.

"Come on, Kim," Zack said, pleadingly. "It's already tried to kidnap you once. We can't let it get you again."

"Then help him!" she fairly shouted, pointing in Tommy's direction. "That thing isn't human. Who is to say it's going to follow the rules of honor?"

Trini and the others had no answer for her.

The conversation died on that note as the battle - duel, she corrected, wanting to roll her eyes - began in earnest. Tommy's skill with a blade was evident, even more so than it had been on the tournament field. He deftly blocked or evaded each of the creature's strikes, using his sword to deflect deadly blows or even turn the monster's momentum back on it to lend power to his counterattacks.

The only ones still talking were Jason and Trini, who were quietly discussing the battle. Kimberly nearly choked when she heard Trini casually comment on Tommy's obvious skill as a warrior. Jason was not going to take that well; a quick glance over her shoulder nearly had Kim in giggles in response to the affronted look on his face.

Turning back to the fight, she almost missed the moment when the monster scored a lucky hit and knocked Tommy's sword away. An audible gasp ran through the courtyard; it seemed Kimberly's small group wasn't the only one watching, or enthralled. But she only had eyes for Tommy.

If the loss of his weapon worried him at all, he didn't show it. In fact, he seemed to be even better at fighting without it. Kimberly watched in awe as he launched into a flurry of high kicks and punches, seemingly unafraid of his proximity to such a dangerous creature. It reminded her of the times she had seen Trini fight, although his movements seemed stronger and more forceful than hers. Trini flowed through a fight as easily as water down a slope. In contrast, Tommy took control of it.

Slowly but surely, he pushed the monster back.

It looked like he might make an easy win of it after all, but the creature was more resourceful than he had given it credit for. It sprang backward to use the wall behind it as a springboard, launching itself into the air to land behind Tommy. Before he could turn to defend, it had delivered a fierce kick that sent him sprawling.

He managed to get back on his feet, but even Kimberly could see that it took longer than it should have. It was becoming clear that the monster would have the advantage before much longer. A single human warrior simply could not match its strength, stamina, or maneuverability, especially unarmed.

"Here, catch!"

It seemed she wasn't the only one that saw the problem. Kim had to grin that it was Trini, little miss honor herself, that intervened. She had gotten a knife somewhere, the fancy metalwork indicated that it probably belonged to Jason, and tossed it to Tommy.

He caught it easily and rolled into a dodge as the monster sought to take advantage of any potential distraction. Every time it struck, he evaded. He ducked kicks and turned punches aside, all the while seeking to put some space between himself and his opponent. Kimberly knew he was just biding his time until he got an opportunity to strike, but that didn't lessen the suspense at all. If anything, it made her more tense. _Come on, ugly, give him a shot!_

It wasn't long before it did, really, but to Kimberly it seemed to take forever. In those few moments it felt as if her world hung by a thread... And then, almost too quickly to follow, Tommy saw his opportunity and struck. He threw the blade with enviable precision: it was a clean hit, right through the heart. Eyes wide with disbelief, the monster teetered awkwardly. Finally, mortally wounded, it toppled to the ground at Tommy's feet. A heartbeat later, it exploded.

The courtyard was suddenly filled with smoke and the scent of brimstone; the dagger that had slain the beast clattered to the ground. The metal was charred black. Kimberly was frantic for any sign that Tommy had escaped the blast, but the smoke was too thick to see.

After what seemed an eternity, Tommy stumbled forward. He was coughing, choking on the thick, black smoke.

Shaking off Trini's attempts to restrain her, Kimberly ran to meet him. He stumbled, nearly toppling into her. She caught hold of him, refusing to let her hero fall, and sank to the gently ground. He went with her, letting her wrap her arms around him. She didn't even care that people would see - and gossip - or that her dress was getting all dirty and she would need a change of clothes sooner rather than later. All that mattered was that Tommy was alive.

It was several long moments before he began to calm. She just held him, whispering praise and soothing words, aware that she was shaking with fear and relief. When at last it seemed that he might be able to answer, she asked, "Are you okay?"

His voice sounded more ragged than usual, but at least the coughing had finally ceased. "Yeah."

"Thank goodness," she murmured. He seemed to realize that he was in a rather compromising position, cradled against her like that, and pulled away so he could sit up a more proper distance away. Their eyes met for an instant; to Kimberly, it felt like a flash of fire passed between them, scorching and enticing at the same time. This connection... they had only met so recently, and yet she felt so inescapably drawn to him.

"Are you okay?"

She supposed it was his turn to ask. For the first time all morning, she didn't mind the question. "Thanks to you. If you hadn't saved me..."

"It was an honor." He nodded his head slightly, looking almost embarrassed. Kimberly had to admit, the gesture was seriously cute. And then he looked her in the eyes again and she forgot how to think. "Will I see you again at the tournament?"

"I'll, uh..." she trailed off uncertainly, flushing with embarrassment. She would have liked nothing better than to go watch him in the tournament, but necessity dictated that she see to the damage that had been done to her bedroom - and the building's integrity - first. "Unfortunately, I have other duties today."

"Then I'll catch you later, Princess," Tommy said, rising to give a bow. Kimberly's heart leapt when he offered her a hand and helped her up. He stayed long enough to steady her and give her back into Trini's care, but departed far too quickly for her taste. His absence left her feeling suddenly lonely and bereft, even though she was surrounded by people.

 

 

True to her word, the Princess did not attend the tournament that day. Considering the circumstances, it was understandable, but it left Tommy feeling more irritated than usual. He had wanted a chance to show off after his battle with the monster. And, he had to admit, he had hoped she might be willing to forgo her other duties for a chance to watch him in action again.

He had just begun to warm up for his match of the day, a sword battle he was sure to win even in his weakened condition, when a familiar voice echoed in his head.

"_Did you like my little monster, Green Knight?"_

He scowled and paused in his warm up. Was she more stupid than he thought? The tournament was behind schedule, but that had not stopped spectators from thronging to watch as the knights prepared for the day's fights. He couldn't respond with so many people around, not without looking suspicious.

"_Think your responses to me, dimwit,"_ Rita chided harshly. "_Don't you think I can read minds?"_

_So you sent that thing_, Tommy thought experimentally, hoping she would pick up on his dry, unimpressed tone.

No such luck. "_Beautiful, wasn't it?"_

_Hardly_, he scoffed, resuming his warm up exercises. _Thanks to you, the Princess won't be watching the tournament today._ For a moment he was caught off-guard: it had seemed only too natural to call her 'Kimberly', rather than by her title, as Rita preferred.

"_I was watching, you know,"_ Rita went on, her voice somewhere between a growl and a purr. "_You impressed her a lot more by saving her from my monster than you would by winning one fight in a tournament."_

He paused again, frustration mounting. So Rita had sent that monster, knowing he would be the one to fight it, and knowing it would be destroyed. If it had not been an attempt to injure or even kill one of his opponents, then why make it such a difficult battle? If Kimberly's handmaid had not intervened and thrown him that knife - Jason's knife, he thought, feeling darkly amused - it might have beaten him. He could have been killed. And then what? Her precious little plans would have crumbled down around her, and it would be her own fault.

"_Oh, quit your grumbling. I knew you would win."_

_Give me a little warning next time_, he managed. _And leave me alone. I'm up to fight soon._

"_Fine, fine. But remember: I'm keeping an eye on you."_

_How could I forget?_ he thought sourly, but Rita made no response. It was just as well, for the tournament arbitrator, that sniveling archivist whats-his-name, announced the matches for the first fights of the day only a few moments later. Tommy's sword battle was one of the first, which would leave him free for much of the day. Maybe he could track the Princess down later and offer some comfort after her ordeal. Preferably in private, away from prying eyes and ears.

With that in mind, he took to the ring for his battle and dominated, scoring an easy victory. He barely paid any attention to it, beyond noting that he was among the knights with the highest marks in the tournament thus far, even rivaling Jason Scott. He was not going to have much to worry about until the real championship began. And that was still a week off.

Which left him plenty of time to hunt down that Princess, so he could see about getting to know her a lot better...


	10. The Field of Battle

Jason's horse stood calmly beneath him as they waited for their turn at the lists. The beast was long accustomed to the bustle and throng of the tournament field; it seemed unperturbed by the rush of hooves against the hard-packed dirt or the sudden impact as knights clashed, and it did not appear bothered in the least by its rider's agitation. At least one of the pair was calm. For his part, Jason scanned the crowd in a vain attempt to settle his nerves.

Just beyond the lists, past a makeshift fence, was standing room for those not of noble blood who wished to view the goings-on. Attendance was high for this tournament, and the stands were crowded. The best vantage points were reserved for the noble families, particularly the relatives of knights competing in the joust, and today their number included Jason's parents. The Lord and Lady Scott were notorious adventurers and were often out of the country on some quest or another on behalf of the royal family, or just for adventure's sake. They had been missing since even before the plague that had taken the King and Queen. Jason frowned slightly when he caught sight of them. They had not sent word that they were back in town.

Nothing else seemed particularly out of the ordinary, but Jason could not seem to put himself fully at ease. He let his gaze fall where it would until the answer came to him.

At tournaments, Trini always took a place of honor, one of the seats reserved for Kimberly and her ladies in waiting. She liked to keep close to Kimberly, so she could both see what was happening in the joust and keep an eye on the Princess – and, he knew though most did not, any potential threats. But this tournament was different, somehow. Most of the seats near the Princess were empty, and there was no sign at all of Trini.

That worried him more than the uncharacteristic distance that Kimberly had put between herself and the other ladies of the court. Mostly he wondered what Trini was doing that was so important she had to leave Kimberly unattended in public for it. A more selfish part of him felt frustrated that she wasn't there in the audience, cheering him on with the others. She had always been unstintingly supportive of him in the past, even laughingly giving him small favors and good-luck tokens when he was bold enough to ask for them. He knew he would do well with or without her well-wishes, but the apparent lack of support from such an old friend stung more than he would like to admit.

He did not particularly like this line of thought, or the irritation it caused, so he simply checked to make sure Trini was not elsewhere in the audience and then chose not to think about it any longer. He had plenty of other concerns right now, not the least of which was his upcoming joust. But since Trini had now missed half the tournament, he made a mental note to track her down soon and make sure Kimberly wasn't working her to death inside the castle somewhere.

That matter settled, at least for now, he directed his attention back to the lists rather than the spectators. A knight in black and scarlet raced off against a much larger knight whose colors were yellow and blue. Amidst a flurry of cheers from the crowd and churned up dirt from the field, the two knights raced headlong toward each other. Lances lowered at seemingly the last possible moment and the knights clashed. It was almost too quick to see what was going on. Neither knight fell, each smashing his lance ineffectually against the other's shield. One point each; they would go again twice more, for a total of three lances, and the knight with the most points would win the round.

Jason decided that he hated this idle time before his own turn to take the field. Rather than helping him relax, it only made him more impatient.

He fidgeted. Unable to focus on the fight in front of him, he glanced over his shoulder. Behind him, squires were assisting knights into and out of armor, and seeing to the animals and weapons of their masters. Upon finding that some part of his armor or weaponry was not in peak condition, one knight swore and began to shout at his squire. Tensions were running high; this wasn't the first time today that Jason had seen a knight lose his temper.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Jason turned back around. As he did so, he caught sight of the now familiar form of the so-called Yellow Knight standing nearby. It would seem Jason was not the only knight watching the joust from the sidelines.

The Yellow Knight had already taken his turn at the lists and was not scheduled to ride again until tomorrow, so his presence here now was odd. Normally he disappeared without a trace when he was not required to fight. Obviously something about this particular joust had piqued his interest, though Jason had no idea what that might be.

Then again, he did not know much at all about this Yellow Knight.

No one even knew his name, except presumably Billy, and he wasn't talking. No one knew where he had come from or why his bizarre-looking armor bore only one color rather than the standard two. No one had seen his face, for he always wore a mask and a cowl to conceal his identity, a fact which annoyed Jason and made all the ladies swoon. But this knight had obviously met Billy's strict requirements for participation in the tournament, and Billy tolerated no questions as to his – or any of the other knights' – eligibility.

On the one hand, Jason understood. It was clear that this knight did not want his identity to be revealed, and for whatever reason Billy felt honor-bound to protect that wish. But on the other hand, Jason had been friends with Billy for so long that he felt slighted that Billy would keep such a secret from him.

He was so distracted that he missed the final pass of the knights, witnessing only the aftermath: the sudden flight of the knight in yellow and blue from his horse. That would seal victory for the knight in black and scarlet.

A final cheer rippled through the crowd and the victorious knight rode around the list once before removing his helmet and bowing to the Princess. Zack's face was exuberant. Jason had to smile and join in the cheer; he couldn't help himself, he was glad to see his friend do so well in the joust.

As he rode off the field, Zack passed by where Jason was waiting. The two paused beside each other.

"Good job," Jason congratulated, clasping hands with Zack for a moment.

"When you're done here, you got a minute?" Zack asked, his voice uncharacteristically serious. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, man, of course," Jason said. He had to admit he was curious. He had no idea what Zack might be so concerned about. "I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm done."

Zack grinned. "Great. Now go kick some butt out there! And remember: the bigger they are, the harder they fall!"

Jason chuckled a little at that. He secured his helmet over his head and urged his horse forward and onto the field as the herald announced his name. He was to face Sir Bulkmeier in this joust, which was actually a rather daunting prospect (not that he would admit it) Sir Bulk might lack a measure of grace and skill when fighting on foot, but his great strength and large size made him difficult to dislodge from a horse. He and his monstrous charger could pack a great deal more force into a single blow with a lance than most other knights, no matter how strong. Jason would have to be very careful to beat him in mounted combat.

A squire handed him his lance, painted in the bold red and gold colors of his family. Across the field, Sir Bulk readied his lance as well.

In the center of the field, squires stood at the ready with the signal flags, waiting. From the sidelines the call went out to start; the flags went up, the young boys raced off the field, raising the flags as they went, and the two knights charged. Jason's horse carried him swiftly down the field, so fast that they might have been flying. His heart racing, Jason gave himself over to the rush of the charge. As he drew within striking range, he took careful aim and struck the tip of Bulk's lance with his own, effectively shattering the other knight's weapon: a high-points move that earned him cheers from the audience.

Squires outfitted Bulk with a new lance, and the knights made two more passes. Jason was not able to pull off another flashy move like his first, but he also managed not to be knocked from his seat, which he considered a victory. Bulk might not be the most coordinated of knights, but he could hit hard. He was one of the few knights that had ever managed to unhorse Jason on the tournament field, but today luck was on Jason's side. He came out of the joust ahead by several points, which further increased his overall lead in the tournament. Now a handful of points separated him from the nearest competitor, Tommy Oliver.

Jason scowled. He had not widened his lead as much as he would have liked. To be honest, he had not expected Tommy to do well at all. According to Billy, Tommy had not participated in a formal joust since being knighted several years ago, and he had never been in one of the large tournaments held at the capital at all. So Jason, and pretty much everyone except Kimberly, had not been expecting much. None of that seemed to bother Tommy, or to hinder him from performing quite well on the field of battle.

Jason had dominated the tournaments for so long that he had to admit it unsettled him to actually feel challenged. In any other tournament it might have been exhilarating to match wits and steel with a knight that had the potential to actually beat him... but right now the stakes were just too high.

He made his acknowledgment to Kimberly in the form of a stiff bow, with none of Zack's theatrics, and then beat as hasty a retreat as was proper. As he rode off the field, he noticed that the Yellow Knight had disappeared at some point during his joust. That struck him as odd, but he did not have much time to spend wondering about it. Zack wanted to talk to him about something, and he owed it to his friend to see to that first.

 

 

Kimberly watched the joust with a sense of detached boredom. It was true that jousting was generally far more exciting than the preceding duels, but Kim had no interest in watching these knights fight each other. There was only one knight she wished to see, but it would be several more bouts before she would even catch a glimpse of him. And worse still, she had to sit through more interviews after the dinner hour.

She was beginning to hate Trini and Billy for this tournament idea. And she was beginning to be irritated by Zordon's continued absence, as well. He had made it perfectly clear that he did not approve of the tournament when the idea was first proposed. Was his disappearance a sign of his disapproval?

She sighed and wished for the millionth time that everyone else would just realize that marrying her to Jason was a bad idea.

Her sour mood was not the least bit improved at looking up to see Jason trounce Sir Bulkmeier in the joust. Did he always have to be so good at everything? If he wasn't, maybe no one would have gotten the silly idea that he should marry her, and then her life would be that much better.

Somehow she managed to plaster a smile on her face and nod her acknowledgment of Jason's victory bow. Inside, she was seething.

This victory gave him enough of a lead that Tommy would have to do exceptionally well in the next few rounds and the melee to follow if he wanted to pull off a win. And Jason would have to start losing fights, and fast. Not that anyone, even Trini, could talk him into doing that.

_Damn it, Jason,_ Kim thought petulantly, _would it kill you to lose for once_?

 

 

Zack waited as patiently as he could for Jason to finish his joust. He was not just impatient, but nervous as well. He hated to be the one to start up the rumor mill, but having paid close attention to Tommy Oliver's actions over the course of the tournament thus far, Zack had come to the conclusion that he had to share what he knew. He couldn't let the weirdness he had witnessed go unaddressed, not when he had seen how ruthless and dangerous Tommy could be. Tommy stood a real chance of winning the kingship, especially if something were to happen to Jason in the next few days. Someone had to know if he wasn't what he seemed.

Zack could have gone straight to Billy or even Kimberly with what he had seen, but he had held back from going that far. He had only seen Tommy talking to himself the one time, and it might have been an isolated incident, or he might have misinterpreted. But with the tournament halfway over and Tommy showing no signs of backing off, he felt he needed to get a second opinion. And there was nobody he considered more qualified to give that second opinion than Jason. He might be fighting against Tommy in the tournament, but he could also be remarkably fair-minded and objective about his opponents.

Jason looked confused and a bit worried when he finally made his way over to where Zack was waiting. He had ditched his horse and most of his armor somewhere, which explained the delay. "Hey man, what's up?" he asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about Tommy," Zack admitted. "That guy's something else."

"No kidding," Jason agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. Somehow he managed to look even grumpier than he had a moment ago. Then again, his 'rival' probably wasn't his favorite topic of conversation.

"Hey, while we're on the subject... have you noticed anything weird about him?" Zack went on, hoping against hope that Jason might have seen an odd thing or two, as well. He would feel a lot more comfortable coming forward with what he knew if there were other witnesses to back him up.

His friend gave him a look that was half skeptical, half curious. "You mean other than the fact that he just conveniently shows up to save Kimberly every time something weird happens?"

Zack really had not given that much consideration, but now that he stopped to think about it, it did seem awfully weird that Tommy was always on hand to save the Princess whenever one of those monsters showed up. And the monsters hadn't started appearing at all until Tommy arrived at the castle. "You think he has something to do with that?"

The look on Jason's face said he had an opinion on that matter, but he was not about to discuss it in public where it might be overheard. Which meant that yes, Jason thought Tommy was somehow involved in the whole monster mess. Realizing that his question was not going to receive an answer, Zack returned to the topic at hand. "Yeah, other than that. He was talking to himself in the hall the other day. And I don't just mean muttering, I mean he was having a conversation with himself," he confided in a low voice, concluding, "It gave me the creeps."

"Talking to himself," Jason mused.

"Look, I know it sounds weird," Zack protested, suddenly fearing that Jason would think he had made the whole thing up. "But I know what I saw. And I"m not sure that guy's all there."

"I believe you," Jason assured him. "And I'll make sure Trini and Billy know to keep an eye on him, if they're not already."

"Thanks, man." Zack breathed a sigh of relief. Telling Jason felt like it had taken a weight off his shoulders.

"No problem. And if you see anything else that seems weird, make sure you tell someone right away. With the kingdom at stake, we can't be too careful."

Zack nodded. He would keep that in mind, and he would keep his eyes and ears open for any other signs that Tommy might be dangerous, but in the meantime he fully planned to worry about something else.

He was not participating in the tournament to win Kimberly's hand in marriage and an entire kingdom to go with it, although he supposed that would not be the _worst_thing that could happen. Rather, he was looking to impress a different young lady, and now that he had done his part in alerting Jason about Tommy, he felt safe in scanning the crowd for any sign of her. Let Jason worry about the fate of the Princess and her kingdom; Zack was perfectly happy limiting his concern to the Lady Angela, and what she thought of his performance in the joust earlier...

He finally spotted her in the stands, where she was seated along with a cluster of other young noblewomen. And she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him. He almost pouted from sheer disappointment.

"Just go talk to her already," Jason teased, following his less than subtle stare.

Zack glared at him, but did not protest.

Laughing, Jason added, "Zack, I've got this. You'd better go get working on convincing your girl if you want to have a date for Kim's ball."

Zack had to laugh, too. He and Angela had been playing a game of cat-and-mouse for years now, and though she might turn him down from time to time, she was always happy to accompany him to royal balls and other festivities... at least when she deemed them important.

He certainly hoped she would think this ball was important. And there was no time like the present to find out.

Gathering his courage, because somehow this was more intimidating than taking the field for a joust, Zack slipped into the crowd and made his way toward Angela and her friends. Behind him, Jason gave a good luck shout that he didn't quite hear. Zack just shook his head and laughed.

 

 

Running a tournament required far more work, and a lot more negotiation, than Billy had thought it would. As the first day of the joust drew to a close, he found himself cornered by several knights and unable to escape. Each knight claimed that some portion of his accoutrement had been sabotaged. Weapons that had been in pristine condition the previous day had been sawed halfway through or doused in oil or otherwise rendered barely usable, if not utterly worthless, and similar abuse had been visited upon valuable suits of armor. Perfectly healthy horses had come up sick, and one had even been found to favor a hind foot that had been healthy a mere day ago. And the knights wanted to know how they would possibly be ready for the upcoming melee with their gear constantly under threat.

Billy had no answer for them. It was all very strange and it was a great deal more than he wanted to deal with. But as Princess Kimberly's specially chosen arbiter, he had little choice but to hear the disgruntled knights out and promise to get to the bottom of things as quickly as possible. After all, one of the few perks of this job was that he had all of the castle's guards and informants at his disposal.

So as he prepared to head back to the castle for the night, he asked questions where he could do so unobtrusively and sent word out amongst those he trusted, but no one seemed to have any more information than the angry knights had. He wondered if Trini might have some insight.

By the time he finally finished reassuring the knights that the saboteur, whoever he was, would be stopped as quickly as possible, she was waiting for him. She was leaning nonchalantly against the wooden fence that kept the lists separate from the portions of the field that were safe for spectators, and better yet, she was toting a packet of food from the castle kitchens. All things considered, she looked surprisingly well for a woman who had spent much of the past week going head to head against the kingdom's best knights. And, it turned out, that was exactly what she wanted to talk to him about.

They walked back to the castle together in the growing gloom, Billy responding absentmindedly to the inconsequential comments and observations Trini made. She was remarkably proficient at discussing nothing at all, at least when she wanted to be.

"There's more to this than the fact that it can give me any appearance I choose," she told him as soon as they were safely sequestered within the archives, away from prying eyes and ears. She idly fingered the topaz ring, still bound to her by its golden chain. "I wish I'd thought to use it for my practice."

She might be uninterested in the food, but Billy was famished. He used the meal as an excuse to mull over what little she had told him. Her words intrigued him. What other possibilities might she have discovered? "So the magic has other properties of which we were not previously aware," he said between mouthfuls. "Tell me."

"I don't take any injuries when I'm using it," she explained, hesitant as if she were trying to figure out exactly how to say what she was thinking. "When I take a hit, it hurts... but there's no lasting damage. Here -" Frustrated, she fussed with the neckline of her dress, tugging it over and down off her right shoulder. Billy flushed bright red, but it thankfully seemed to escape her notice. It wasn't until she mentioned it that he realized why she was showing him the faint pink mark across her shoulder. "This is where I got hit in my last duel."

Billy remembered that fight vividly, despite his best attempts to push it from his mind. He had been certain she would be seriously injured, for the blow that cost her the duel had been a crushing one and had taken her completely by surprise. She had not been able to defend against it. Although the sword's blade had been blunted for the tournament and she had been wearing armor, such a hit should have crushed her collarbone or at least dislocated her shoulder. But there was no sign of injury beyond a slight pink tint to the skin.

"That's incredible," he murmured, embarrassment overcome by his scholar's curiosity. He might not have believed what she was saying, after all, it sounded like something out of a child's bed-time tale, but the proof was right there in front of him.

"It takes away other pain, too," she went on, readjusting the neckline of her gown so that it was presentable again. "When I wear the ring, I don't feel the strain so much. When I put it on it's like the aches and pains never happened, but as soon as I take it off, they're back."

"You had best be cautious," he warned. "We do not yet know what kind of toll this could exact from you."

She nodded. "I know. That's why I don't use it unless I have to. But it helps a lot. I thought you should know." Suddenly, she grinned wryly and admitted, "And I thought you might appreciate some dinner, since no one else seems inclined to give you a break."

He thought he detected a note of bitterness in her words. Not that he could blame her. Kimberly had put her in a tough position, and she was undoubtedly doing her best to cope. He sympathized. While his role as tournament arbiter meant he often found himself in front of a crowd or struggling to keep unruly knights in line, Trini was the one that actually had to fight them, and all without revealing her identity or the magic that enabled her to fight them on a level playing field.

She shook her head suddenly, as if to clear it. "I should go see if there is anything Kim needs me to do yet tonight," she said. She sounded indescribably weary.

"Trini, wait," he said, startling himself with his boldness.

"Hmm?"

"This is a difficult and stressful time for all of us. If there is anything you would like to divulge... if you feel you need a friendly ear, I will gladly listen," he told her sincerely.

She gave a small smile. "Thanks, Billy."

A moment later she was gone, slipping away through the archives and leaving Billy to feel oddly bothered by his sudden solitude.

 

 

Kimberly sighed morosely and watched the door to the little audience room close. She had just finished her last, totally awkward interview of the evening and, all things considered, she was more than a little disappointed. The tournament had seemed such a romantic idea at first, but it was letting her down at every turn.

Unable to stand it any longer, but not yet willing to go out and face the rest of the castle, Kimberly rose and went to the small mirror that hung on the wall. The lighting in this room was not the best, but it was enough that she could at least fix her hair. She spent some time fussing with it, making sure that each strand was impeccably in place. She had just been forced to admit to herself that her hair looked fine and she was stalling, when there came a knock at the door.

Kimberly scowled angrily. The guards outside should know better than to interrupt her private time. "What is it?" she demanded, in a tone of voice that she realized was probably rude. Then again, if everyone wanted her not to be rude, they could give her a few minutes to herself now and then.

The door opened, and her heart caught in her throat. _Tommy!_

He stood outlined in the doorway, illuminated from behind. She stared at him, uncomprehending, feeling roughly as if he had just stepped out of a storybook to rescue her from this dull and dismal fate. It seemed like it had been ages since she had seen him, even though it had only been a few hours since she watched him in the tournament. It was such a relief to see him that she found herself suddenly speechless and almost shy, not sure of what to say.

She would have preferred to say nothing at all, simply fling herself into his arms and let him hold her for a while, but she had little doubt that would be _frowned upon_. So she forced her brain to work. "Tommy, what are you doing here?"

"I got permission to move my interview to tonight, if you did not object," he explained.

"Why would I object?" she asked demurely, trying to pretend that his voice didn't send shivers down her spine.

"All right then, how does this work?"

"I have this list of questions that Billy wants me to ask," she said with a sigh. She would rather have talked about anything but the questions Billy wanted her to ask; they seemed so dull and unnecessary.

Tommy dropped into the nearest chair and looked completely at ease. "Ask away, my lady."

Nervous beyond reason, Kimberly seated herself in the chair facing him and began by reading the first question on the list, dutifully recording Tommy's answer. As the interview progressed, she found herself almost smiling. His answers were, in her opinion, the best and most insightful she had received thus far.

She found herself almost _enjoying_ this interview. The questions might be the same stuffy questions as in all the previous interviews, but Tommy's presence somehow made the room seem cozy and inviting. His responses were interesting; it was as if they were actually having a _conversation_instead of an interview. She actually felt regret when she asked the final question on the list, knowing that it meant the inevitable end of this pleasant encounter.

She must have looked very glum, because Tommy picked up on it almost immediately. "Is something wrong?"

She sighed. "Is an early interview really all you wanted?"

He shrugged gracefully. "Actually, no. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to make your day better. You looked pretty miserable at the tournament today."

"Ah," she said, feeling downcast. "It's not as much fun as I thought it might be. Actually, it's kind of awful. All those men, they're fighting for _me_, and I'm not even sure it's me they're fighting for. I think most of them just want a chance to be King. And the others... it's like they just think I'm some sort of pretty prize."

Tommy stood suddenly; hardly realizing it, Kimberly rose too. "I only came here because your summons said I had to," he confided, his hands finding hers and squeezing. The gentle gesture set her heart to racing. "I never wanted to be King, and I didn't really want to come to the tournament, either. But I have to admit it's turning out to be a lot more worthwhile than I thought it might be."

"Is that so?" she asked, acutely aware of the way he was rubbing his thumb across her wrist. "I'm glad to hear it."

She glanced up at him just as he looked down at her; their eyes met and gazes locked. Kimberly felt a shock like a spark pass between them, and wondered if he had felt it, too. She murmured his name almost helplessly, but couldn't seem to articulate the thoughts racing through her head.

As if reading her mind, he bent down and pressed his lips to hers. It was soft and gentle, but it weakened her knees and set every nerve afire; she wanted to melt against him, but it was over too quickly. Thoroughly dazzled, Kim was content simply to stare up at him for a long moment.

"I'd better go," he said at last, adding, "That is, if your highness permits it."

She almost said no, but by the time she finally got her mouth working again he was already gone. Without him, the audience room again seemed dim and claustrophobic, and she felt almost numb.

As she sank back into her chair, she realized that she was shaking. The world seemed as if it had turned upside-down; everything felt strange, as if she were seeing it all with new eyes. And in this brand new world she had only one certainty: she wanted so much more from him than that one little kiss.


	11. The Royal Masque

Even in his weary, overworked state, Billy knew that something was amiss the moment he set foot in the archives. He had come here intending to make only a brief stop to check that the apprentices were handling things well in his absence before returning to his quarters and falling into his bed. Instead, he paused, frowning as he tried and failed to put his finger on what the anomaly might be. Nothing seemed obviously out of place, but he could not seem to quell the feeling of wrongness that rose up in his gut. As he stepped cautiously around a group of shelves, his gaze fell on the figure of a young woman, who he recognized immediately in spite of the fact that she was hunched over one of the alcove's worktables and her back was turned to him.

"Katherine!" he exclaimed in surprise, happily returning the hug she rose to give him. "What are you doing here? And why did you not send word in advance of your arrival?"

"We heard a few weeks back that the plague had run its course," she explained. "And then word came of a royal tournament, with _you_ of all people as the arbiter, and I had to come back. I just had to see it for myself, and to see if I could be of any use to you."

"I regret to inform you, but the joust concluded just this morning," Billy told her. He knew she would be disappointed, but he was thankful for small mercies. All that remained of the tournament was the melee, and then he would be free of such onerous responsibilities and able to return to the archives – and peace and quiet. He certainly would not miss having knights constantly pestering him with one problem or another. "Jason took the top prize, of course."

"I'm too late then?" Kat asked, her expression downcast.

"The melee is scheduled for the day after tomorrow," he confirmed, though he hated to disappoint her when she had only just returned.

"Well, I can see that much at least."

Rather impetuously, he added, "There is also a royal masquerade ball tomorrow. Kimberly has ordered the castle doors be thrown open to whoever would attend."

"Really? That sounds exciting. Too bad I'd have nothing to wear... I guess I'll have to sit that one out, too." She pouted. Billy could hardly stand to see her look so disappointed. Her timing had been bad, but the situation couldn't be unsalvageable.

"Maybe not," he mused aloud, thinking of a certain royal tailor's wife who might be convinced to help a young woman shine at her first royal ball, in spite of the lateness of the request. Ordinarily he would have balked at the idea of making such a request, but for one of his oldest friends – and considering his current position of importance, as the official arbiter of Kimberly's tournament – the effort would be the least he could do. "There may be something I can do by way of assistance."

"Really?" she asked, trying too late to mask her surprise. Even he had to admit it was a bold move, at least for one such as him, who was normally more inclined to hide in the depths of the archives than deal with the people living above.

"There's someone I can ask to help," he told her, "but there's a condition."

This time she did not bother to hide her shock. "A condition? Billy..."

"Go to the ball with me?" he asked, hating himself for turning it into a question. Bold, confident men like any of the knights wouldn't have asked, would have just thrown the words out there, the consequences be damned. Billy might have been emboldened by his success as the royal arbiter, but he was not _that_ emboldened... yet.

"Find me something to wear, and I'll be there gladly," Kat told him with a wide grin. She took a seat at the table again and he joined her. "Though I have to admit, I'm surprised to hear you ask. The Billy I left only a few months ago would never have done something like that. I'd have had to plead with you just to get you out of the archives for a few minutes."

He had surprised himself, truth be told. He had not planned to make such an offer; he had rather assumed he would attend the ball with Trini, for convenience's sake, but she had been conspicuously missing since the tournament's conclusion, depriving him of the opportunity to ask. And while he had not consciously intended to ask Katherine instead, he knew he would be just as happy catching up with her as he would spending time with Trini.

Aware that an awkward silence had descended, Billy searched falteringly for something to say.

"What are you doing down here, anyway?" Kat asked. She had broken the silence with her customary ease, but she seemed rather wary as she glanced around the archives. "It's late, and it looks like you've got the apprentices tearing the place apart."

"I do. We are taking an inventory."

"In the middle of a tournament?"

"It is of the utmost importance, Katherine." He was seldom so somber, and the implication of his tone was not lost on Kat. He watched her grow pale, then handed her the topmost book from the pile he had been going through yesterday. "Look at this and tell me what you see."

Her eyes widened the moment she took hold of the book; she opened it and flipped immediately to a spot just past the middle, where several pages had been cut out. "It's missing pages," she commented. She ran a finger slowly along the line of shorn pages, suddenly all business. "Someone's been stealing from the archives?"

He nodded. "Right under my nose. And for quite a while, it would appear."

Kat's expression grew steadily darker. "That's awful! And... why would someone do that? What is to be gained from stealing from the books?"

"That is what I am trying to uncover," Billy explained. He wondered if he should tell her what all the missing sections had in common, or if that would only worry her needlessly, and decided to say nothing for the moment. "I have my suspicions, but a full inventory of what is missing will help determine the motive and perhaps reveal the culprit."

"If there is anything I can do to help, I am at your disposal," Kat pronounced, her tone decisive.

Billy nodded his acceptance of her offer. He suspected that she was just as outraged as he by such blatant disregard for the sanctity and importance of the royal archives; after all, they had learned under the same Master Archivist. The Master who had been so brilliant and wise, and was now gone, another victim of the plague that had taken the King and Queen.

Billy had to wonder, even if it pained him, if the archives might have been safer in Kat's hands during the plague and its aftermath. She was fiercely protective of the books and the knowledge they contained, but she had been visiting her family's home in the country when the plague hit the city. With the city quarantined, save for those on urgent business, she had been trapped outside.

Both students had survived the plague that had taken their Master, but without his experience to guide them, it would seem they were at a bit of a loss. And, Billy knew now, someone had seen that lapse as an opportunity – and rightly so. Well, one way or another, whoever was behind this would be found and brought to justice. And if he required Kat's help to do that, then he decided there was no shame in needing help. After all, that was why the Master had chosen _two_ successors rather than the traditional one.

In the lapse in conversation that followed, this silence far more comfortable than the first, Kat managed to locate his list of what had gone missing. He watched as her eyes scanned the list, waiting for her to make the same connection he had.

But she did not. She grimaced suddenly, rubbing her temple with one hand. Billy thought he heard a faint hiss, not unlike a whispered voice, though it might have been only a quavering exhalation or some oath she wished to keep to herself. He felt nervous, almost frightened, at seeing her in such pain so suddenly and without obvious cause. When it came to digging up information out of even the oldest, most illegible tomes, he had no problems. But dealing with real, live people and all the problems that came with them... that was a different matter entirely, even if they were old friends. "Katherine!"

"I'm fine," she murmured, waving off his concern. "It's just a headache."

"Are you sure? I can send for one of the healers..."

"That's very sweet of you, Billy, but I think a little tea will put me to rights," she admitted, sounding a little sheepish. "I was so excited to see you again that I didn't stop to get anything to eat before I came down here... and then I got a bit distracted by all the activity and totally forgot."

"You should take care of yourself before promising assistance to others," Billy admonished. He tried not to let it show, but he was relieved that her sudden malady might have such a simple cause – and an easy cure.

She smiled at him and set aside the parchment she had been reading, looking more chagrined by the moment. "I'll try to do better."

That answer satisfied him, although he knew she had a habit of pushing herself too hard and forgetting everything else – including the fact that she required things like food and sleep – in the face of her duties. With the Master gone, he would have to watch her more closely to make sure she did not cause herself any harm in her exuberance.

He sent Kat off with orders to eat and get some rest, promising that he would follow her example as soon as he had checked the inventory's progress. But when she was gone he sank back into his chair with a sigh and let his eyes drift closed. So much to oversee, so much to watch for, so much to do. And it seemed like there was never enough time.

With another sigh, this one more resolute than the last, Billy pushed himself to his feet and set off in search of the royal tailor and his wife, who would no doubt still be awake no matter the late hour. He would never make any progress on this list of things to do if he didn't get started.

 

 

From her tower, Rita watched the tournament's progression with a keen eye. She made it a point to know who each of the competitors was, and what his motivation might be and how good his chances were. She had long ago decided which ones she might tolerate (the ones that were malleable and could be easily manipulated or bespelled) and those that she hated (Jason Scott and his ilk, do-gooders all).

But beyond merely watching, she was always looking for opportunities to cause trouble. Not enough to arouse undue suspicion toward her knight, but enough to inconvenience the competition. She gleefully oversaw his sabotage of the other knights' armor and weapons, and observed with less enthusiasm his misbehavior toward the princess. She had to admit, however, that he appeared to have been right about the girl. Thus far Kimberly had responded very favorably toward his advances despite only having known him for a short period of time.

For now, Rita was inclined to let it continue. If Tommy could keep the Princess's attention on him and not on what he was doing, it would be all for the better. And if she happened to fall in love with him along the way, that would only make her more willing to make him King, or at least to hand over whatever he asked for. Including, Rita had no doubt, that magical crown of hers.

The castle was quiet today; at the joust's conclusion this morning, Kimberly had declared a day of rest to precede her masquerade ball. Soon Rita's plan would come to fruition. The final climactic event of the tournament, the melee, would begin at dawn the next day, and then Tommy would deal with the last of his competition once and for all. With Jason Scott out of the way, courtesy of an unfortunate 'accident' during the brawl, there would be no one to challenge Tommy for the Princess's heart or her power.

Rita could picture it already. Her loyal minion on the throne, the magic crown and all of its power in her possession... she might even decide to make herself Queen in Kimberly's stead. It wouldn't hurt to add another title to her already impressive list, she thought.

But first, she had to make sure this ball went off without a hitch, or at least without any hitches that were not of her own devising. She left her scrying pool and went to her bookshelf. Drawing down a large tome, she returned to her original position and began to flip idly through the book. When she finally found what she was looking for, she turned her mind to Tommy.

_Are you ready for the ball tomorrow, my Green Knight? _she asked coyly, already knowing the answer. He might be mentally prepared, but she would have to provide him with other necessities... like a costume.

_"Why bother asking when you already know?"_

He was ever astute, her Green Knight, though his attitude could perhaps stand some improvement. Rita smiled. _I thought I might help you out._

Aloud, she intoned the words to a spell she had not used in ages. It was hard work to weave a spell over such a great distance, but the end result would be worth it. The one saving grace was the scrying pool. She was able to watch her spell take shape in Tommy's room, even so far away as he was. When she had finished the spell, the image in her mind had become reality, a dark costume perfect for her Green Knight.

_Well? What do you think?_ she demanded, watching through the scrying pool as Tommy went to investigate the new clothes that had appeared on his bed. _Nice, huh?_

_"If you're going for tall dark and scary," _Tommy quipped ungratefully.

_You'll catch your Princess's eye_, Rita assured him. For once he did not argue with her.

 

 

It had seemed to Aisha that the night of the royal masquerade ball would never come. Now that it had, she watched, equal parts eager and amused, as the castle courtyard began to fill with people. Day was beginning to edge toward evening and the seventh bell had only just rung, but she had made sure that she, and Rocky and Adam with her, had arrived plenty early. She wanted to get a good look at the costumes the others were wearing to this party; she had never attended a royal ball before, much less a masquerade, and while it seemed quite frivolous it also looked like a lot of fun.

The usually dull yard was festooned with flowers and outfitted with colorful decorations, filled with the enticing aroma of a variety of foods, and lit up like the middle of the day even as the sun was setting beyond the castle walls. And it only became a more colorful spectacle as the guests arrived. Representatives from every noble family trickled into the yard; she had heard, too, that Kimberly planned to throw open the doors to whoever wished to attend, even down to the lowliest servant.

So far, the only people Aisha had difficulty recognizing through their costumes were people she did not already know. Rocky only laughed when she said as much, adding, "Don't worry, it'll just get more confusing as more people show up. That's kind of the point."

"I'll take that as a challenge," she countered with a toothy grin, earning a shake of the head from Adam.

As the trickle of attendees became a flow and then a throng, even the spacious courtyard began to seem full. Amid the boisterous crowd, Aisha was able to pick out most of the kingdom's knights and the various ladies accompanying them, though she knew the knights better than the ladies thanks to her time spent on the tournament field playing squire to Rocky. There were Jason Scott and Zack Taylor, two of her favorites, and many other knights including some she did not like nearly so well. Seeing that Jason was conspicuously dateless, she made a mental note to catch him for a dance later so she could get to know him better.

And then there were the nobles, gaggles of them. Those she did not know so well as the knights, though Rocky and Adam seemed happy to point them out to her... at least the ones they recognized. With more money at their disposal than the knights, some of whom were only younger sons and did not have much in the way of personal income, the nobles' costumes were of higher quality and made for better disguises. The only thing that was easy to tell was that the wearers were noble and had plenty of money to spend on frivolities.

And thanks to Kimberly's open invitation and judicious scheduling, even the lowliest of servants had been outfitted with a mask and could find time to attend the ball, if only just for a few minutes. Before long the courtyard teemed with people of all ranks. Outside, the sun had set and darkness had fallen in earnest, making the torch flames seem that much brighter, accentuating the lanterns that floated above the yard on their ropes, small flames hovering in glass cases like enormous fireflies against the darkened sky. What had begun as a myriad quiet conversations became a dull roar, fighting for dominance with the musicians that had begun to play.

Rocky had not been exaggerating when he said things would become quite confusing as the night wore on; Aisha thought it all looked like great fun, but she shook her head when Rocky offered to lead her in the first dance of the evening. She wanted to stay on the sidelines for a little while longer, in the hopes of getting a good look at the Princess, whenever she saw fit to arrive.

Although by now it was well past the ball's official beginning, people were still coming in. Of the later arrivals, Aisha recognized only a few. One of them was Billy the archive-keeper, obvious in his official blue, accompanied by a young blonde woman Aisha hadn't seen before. To judge by the way they were both smiling, they must be good friends. Billy was a little stuffy and a lot shy, but in what Aisha felt was a surprisingly cute and endearing way, and it would take someone he trusted to bring him out of that shell. She did not know him well, herself, but she was glad to see him smiling. If he kept that up, certain knights might have to stop complaining that he was an over-educated snob!

She giggled in spite of herself at the thought, earning a concerned look from Adam; Rocky was long since gone onto the dance floor in search of a willing partner. Aisha shrugged helplessly and did not elaborate on the source of her amusement. Adam would just roll his eyes if she did. Not that she could blame him. She _was_being silly, but she blamed that on the infectious atmosphere of the party.

It was so infectious, in fact, that Aisha was impatient to give up her vigil. It seemed that the only person that could possibly be missing at this point was the Princess herself. Aisha decided that she _would_ see the Princess's outfit this night, whether she waited patiently or spent her night enjoying herself would make no difference. She gave one last glance toward the large doors that led into the castle keep, then seized Adam's hand and dragged him toward the slightly less crowded place where groups were assembling for another dance.

They were halted halfway there when a hush fell over the crowd and all motion seemed to cease. The great doors swung ponderously open, trumpets bugled and from somewhere a herald cried the announcement, and as Aisha strained to see, the Princess emerged.

 

 

Kimberly paced nervously around her borrowed bedchamber, feeling roughly as if her insides were tied in knots. Tonight was the big night, the night of the masquerade ball she had so been looking forward to. But things were not going according to plan. Most of all, she was keenly aware of Trini's absence. They had quarreled yesterday after the tournament; Trini had stormed off to sulk somewhere and had been missing ever since, leaving Kim to deal with the ball preparations alone.

Thinking about it just made her upset all over again. It wasn't that she didn't see where Trini was coming from... she just didn't agree with her reasoning. Trini had done her duty, participating in the individual bouts of the tournament and even the mounted joust, and she had done so remarkably well for an untrained woman. She had not come close to winning (irritatingly, Jason had done that, eking out a victory over Tommy by a mere handful of points) but she had not disgraced herself or been disqualified, either. And all the while she had given Kimberly detailed reports of what she saw and heard, and an analysis of the pros and cons of each of the competitors. None of that was a problem. She had merely objected to Kimberly's request that she also participate in the melee.

Kimberly stopped pacing for a moment. She would never have asked that without good reason, and Trini should know that! She had received disturbing reports - and not just from Trini, but Billy and Zack as well - that things were not right on the tourney field. Someone was sabotaging the knights. And no one knew who it might be, although Zack had tried to point the blame toward Tommy, no doubt in an effort to help Jason out. Kim frowned in exasperation. Trini was the only one in the castle she trusted to be more or less objective, and not to try to disguise the truth in order to further her own agenda. Couldn't she see that Kimberly needed her help?

Ruefully, she supposed that if Trini understood that she really needed help, she would be here helping instead of hiding wherever she was.

Well, she could not let Trini's lack of support stop her. Trini had already given her a great deal of assistance and that would have to be enough for now. All she had to do tonight was live through the ball, and parties had always been one of her favorite ways to pass the time. She couldn't see how anything could go wrong on this one night. She would be surrounded by the knights of the realm and a contingent of guards; the only danger was that things might be dull, but with Tommy around she sincerely hoped that would not be the case.

At any rate, it was too late to worry about that now. This close to the start of the festivities, everything was in the hands of her highly capable servants and all she had to do was get dressed for a fashionably late arrival. Carefully, almost reverently, she drew her night's dress out from the wardrobe. It was a vision in fiery silks and shining beads, all done up in a flame motif to invoke the essence of the firebird, an animal sacred to her family since time immemorial. It was carefully cut and fitted just-so, so that it lent her some of the bird's grace, and the flowing lines mimicked feathers and wings; a shining, jewel-encrusted mask and feathered cloak completed the look. Her tailor had really outdone himself this time. Unfortunately, just getting into the outfit was going to be a task in itself. And she still had to style her hair...

Later than she would have liked, Kimberly finally made her way down to the castle courtyard. She tried to ignore the two guards that followed just behind her, and the growing sense of unease in the pit of her stomach. She knew it was ridiculous, but she couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

A herald announced her. She strode boldly through the huge doors as a respectful hush fell over the gathered celebrants. All eyes turned to her. Keeping her expression as neutral as possible, she gave a quick speech congratulating each of her knights for his participation in the tournament, and encouraging everyone present to enjoy the evening as much as possible. As soon as she was done, she promptly forgot what she had just said, and breathed a surreptitious sigh of relief. Somehow all this seemed easier with the mask covering half of her face. As if there was any chance at all anyone would fail to recognize her.

Off to one side, the musicians saw their cue and struck up a lively tune. Slowly but surely, the party came back to life. As it did, she waded carefully into the throng.

She spent quite a bit of time mingling, exchanging pleasantries and admiring the many costumes. After a while, the smile that she had pasted onto her face earlier became more and more genuine; she might be feeling emotionally raw inside, but she really did enjoy being the center of attention. At least, she enjoyed it when she just got to look pretty and have a good time, rather than making speeches or acting in her official capacity as the kingdom's soon-to-be Queen.

At some point over the past few days she had realized that she was going to be stuck being Queen forever once she got married... And since that was going to happen far sooner than she would like, she might as well enjoy just being the Princess, and bearing the limited responsibilities that went along with that title, while she had the chance. A ball like this was definitely a chance to let off a little steam and have some fun. And since it might be her last chance to do so without the encumbrance of obligations and an unwanted husband, Kimberly was all the more determined to enjoy it.

 

 

Jason had not been paying much attention to who arrived at the ball, or when they got there or what they were wearing. He made a proper obeisance with the others when Kimberly made her grand entrance, but he really did not care much for such functions, although Kimberly adored them and that meant he would probably have to muddle his way through a lot more of them in the future. He could mingle and make small talk and even dance well enough when he put his mind to it, but he would have much preferred the relative simplicity of another round on the tourney field.

Despite his lack of interest in the night's events, he knew immediately when Trini arrived. And that surprised him, both because she had entered from a small side door so as not to detract from Kimberly's entrance, and because she was ordinarily one of the most unobtrusive women he knew. She was usually calm and collected, not one that needed to draw attention to herself – unlike most of the noblewomen. This was apparently not the case tonight, not that he was complaining.

The moment his gaze fell on her, his breath caught in his throat. Zack turned to see, too, and made an appreciative comment that Jason barely heard; he was too busy staring to pay attention. Try as he might, and he was dimly aware that for appearances' sake he _should_, he could not seem to tear his gaze away from her. Even from his vantage point practically on the opposite end of the courtyard, she was unmistakable: a vision in plain yellow silk that flowed like liquid gold and left surprisingly little to the imagination.

Through the sudden rush of his blood and inability to speak, he almost wished she had warned him about this. Who knew that underneath those modest dresses she wore, Trini had been hiding a body like that? But he could tell from the look on her face that she had not anticipated her relatively simple outfit making much of a splash, which it definitely was, and felt a pang of sympathy. She wasn't used to being the object of so much attention.

He had half a mind to go rescue her, but as she made her way stoically toward where he and Zack were standing he realized she didn't really need saving. At least, not from this crowd. There might be rumors later, but she had made her splash and now she was already practically forgotten. The castle gossips were far more concerned with which knights and noblemen the Princess chose to dance with than what finery a servant girl wore to the ball.

"What did you do, steal Kim's tailor?" Zack joked when Trini drew close enough to hear.

She laughed quietly and shook her head. "Does this look like the work of our royal tailor?" she teased right back.

"Hardly," Jason put in. "If he'd designed it, it'd be covered with jewels."

"Actually, I think it's Kim that insists on that," she admitted.

"Too bad she's the one that sets the fashions," Angela sighed from her place beside Zack. Trini looked a little surprised to see her, although she hid it quickly; Jason smiled in spite of himself, pleased once again by his friend's minor victory. Angela was notoriously temperamental when it came to her suitors, and to Zack in particular. It was highly unusual for her to agree to attend any event with a date.

"I don't know," Zack said philosophically. "The court would be a lot less entertaining if all the noble ladies weren't constantly trying to copy her more... interesting fashion choices."

Angela shot him a sour look for that.

"I mean, the ones that haven't got enough beauty and brains to develop their own looks," he amended easily. Angela looked less than impressed.

Trini stepped in smoothly then, distracting Angela and soothing away her irritation with some comment Jason didn't hear. There was simply too much going on, too many distractions. It was difficult to hear anything over the music and dozens of separate conversations, and it seemed they were standing in the only still point amid a riotous sea of unfamiliar forms wearing colorful masks and even more colorful costumes.

He kept sneaking glances at her as she chatted with Angela. That dress was something else. He had never seen its like before, and wondered if this was the reward Kimberly had given her for all the hard work she had been doing while everyone else enjoyed the tournament. She wore no adornments with the outfit, save for a large ring with a bright yellow stone on the middle finger of her right hand. That ring... he knew he had seen it - or its twin - somewhere before. But where?

He dismissed that thought. The ring was probably just some trinket of Kimberly's; Trini had a habit, which the Princess supported wholeheartedly, of borrowing jewelry for royal functions.

But it still nagged at him. There was something important about that innocuous piece of jewelry, something he should remember, but couldn't.

Maybe he would find a chance to ask her about it later in the evening.

He supposed he could always _make _an opportunity. After all, this was one of Kimberly's royal balls, and a masquerade at that. It was practically tailor-made for sharing secrets and clandestine conversations.

It would just be a matter of getting Trini alone since, he decided, it wouldn't do to be interrogating her about her jewelry in front of the entire court. That would no doubt be the tricky part, not that he minded a challenge. Considering how captivating she looked in that costume, he couldn't be the only one interested in spending time beside her tonight; that thought made him feel strangely ill at ease.

He decided then that this was no time for silly plots and he should just go for the easiest, most direct route: asking her to dance. On the dance floor, they might be surrounded by people, but the chances of their conversation being overheard would be low. Everyone would be concentrating on the dancing and on their own conversations, not those of the people around them.

The musicians were winding down from a lively tune and as they began their next set, he recognized the song and that settled it. It was going to be now or never... and as far as Jason was concerned, 'never' was never an option.

He kept it well-hidden, but he felt the slightest bit nervous as he stepped up beside Trini to put his plan into motion. She looked so ethereal, as if she might flit away at any moment... He wondered, if he let her go now, if he could catch her again later and decided that yes, he could. But there was nothing stopping him from asking her for a turn now, and making sure that not only did he get the answer he sought, but also that he would be the one to claim her first dance of the evening. There was nothing preventing him from asking her for another dance later in the evening, once he'd done his duty by Kimberly, either.

Decision made and accompanied by a well-timed lull in the conversation, he offered a hand and asked, "Want to dance?"

 

 

It seemed like everyone wanted a turn to dance with Kimberly (except Jason, who seemed perfectly happy gawking at Trini instead; she reminded herself to thank Trini for that). Not that she could blame them, not when she looked this fabulous, but all the dancing was exhausting. And she was starting to think she'd had the tailor make her dress just a little bit too tight through the bodice. But she finally managed to extricate herself from the crowd and escape to a rather secluded corner where she could - hopefully - stop to catch her breath without being swept away again.

She spent a few minutes just standing there, watching the crowd from an outsider's perspective. It was almost relaxing, and after a while her breath came easier. She had just started thinking about finding something to eat when a dark figure loomed beside her.

Her heart skipped a beat and for a moment she failed to recognize the man in the mask. But only for a moment. "Tommy."

She had not been able to pick him out of the crowd, and had been afraid that he had decided not to come, after all. But he was there! And he'd found her! She had to fight the sudden strong urge to fling herself into his arms.

"It's that easy to tell?" he asked, pouting a little.

"I'd know you anywhere," she told him. And it was true, whether he liked it or not. There was just something about him that made him instantly recognizable to her. It was as if some part of her very soul cried out in yearning at the sight of him, as if he were a missing part of her.

"Well for the record, I tried," he sighed. His gaze roamed over her form then, with a deliberate and oddly enticing slowness that made her heart beat ever faster. "And it seems we match."

She had not been paying particular attention to his choice of attire, and blushed a little when she had to look him over carefully to see what he meant. She was usually more observant than this... but he made it so hard for her to focus! Upon closer inspection, she could see that his mask bore the chilling visage of an owl. It might have been frightening if she had not recognized him, but it made Kimberly smile. It was as if they had planned this night together, so that he had come dressed as a dark bird, the perfect complement to her radiant firebird's light.

"We do," she said at last, far too late. She was thoroughly distracted, her responses slow and almost half-witted, her mind busy considering the situation and its possibilities. In this secluded corner of the courtyard, they were utterly _alone_, or at least as alone as they were going to get at a royal ball. The thought of being alone with Tommy, as always, sent a thrill shivering up and down her spine. For a Princess, solitude was a luxury and a rarity. And now that she found herself unexpectedly alone with the man she cared so deeply for, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. But what would be the best way...

"So what are you doing here, off in a dark corner all by yourself?" Tommy went on, seemingly oblivious to her distraction. "This is your party, shouldn't you be enjoying it?"

"I am," she protested.

"Doesn't look like you're enjoying it nearly enough," he commented. Something in his tone made her shiver with anticipation. His hands had found hers and clasped around them, drawing the two of them together; his thumb brushed across the soft, sensitive flesh of her wrist. He smiled faintly. "And your heart's racing. Are you feeling all right?"

She had a feeling he knew only too well that her breathlessness and racing heart were due to his presence. "I've been dancing a lot tonight," she told him, wondering if he would point out the lie. "I needed a break."

"If I asked, would you dance with me, too?" he murmured thoughtfully.

"I would do anything you asked," she confessed. Any one of her advisers would have killed her for making such a proclamation, even though it was true. Upon reflection, however, her advisers would have to beat Trini to the honor if they wanted to kill her for a careless off-hand comment like that. But at the moment, she really did not care what they thought. She wanted...

She wanted a great many things; for him to kiss her, to be held in his arms, to take him by the hand and lead him out onto the dance floor where she could make her choice clear to everyone in the realm... And all those desires flitted right out of her head the moment he tugged her gently closer and pressed his lips to hers.

She was suddenly breathless, lightheaded. Her dress was definitely too tight. But it didn't matter. _Nothing _mattered. Kissing Tommy was good, so good. And she would have very much liked to go on kissing him for the rest of the night, and perhaps make an early exit from the ball together, but she knew there was no way she could get away with something like that. And even if she did, Trini would kill her for it.

So she knew that this couldn't last... But for now, she refused to think about that.

Her pleasure did not diminish even when he broke from the kiss and pulled away slightly. Their eyes met, and the electric shock that followed was enough for her... for now.

She should have been embarrassed by such openly licentious behavior in what was essentially a public place, or she probably should have at least _pretended_ to be embarrassed, but she could not seem to tear her gaze away from his long enough to worry about it. She could tell from looking at him that he was every bit as affected as she was... and that knowledge only made it all the more intoxicating.

This time she was the one that kissed him, surging forward and up to loop her arms tightly around his neck, leaving him no way to escape. Not that she particularly thought he would _want _to escape.

She was mildly disappointed when his hands clasped around her wrists, urging her to loosen her grip on him. But, conscious of the fact that he probably enjoyed breathing, she released him. She watched him nervously, breathing heavily and suddenly, irrationally fearful that he had only been toying with her. And then...

Oh, yes, yes, _yes_. She molded her body against his as he gently unclasped her cloak and pressed a line of wet kisses down her bared neck. She was working on freeing his long hair from the tail he had tied it in when she heard a rustle nearby, followed by a high pitched cackle.

Horrified at being discovered, knowing full well that if word of this got out it would mean trouble, she made to pull away, but Tommy was holding her too tightly. And when he finally did release her it was to put himself between her and whoever it was that had found them. And when she caught sight of just exactly what had intruded on them, she knew why he had clutched her so tight. A large creature, that looked as if it might once have been a strange variety of flower, leered at her. Tommy had forcefully set himself between her and danger, and he was not going to willingly let her stray into its path.

Another monster? And _now_, of all times? Kimberly groaned. "Why me?"

 

 

Trini stared at Jason for a moment, thinking she must have misheard. "What?"

"I asked if you wanted to dance."

From nearby she could hear Zack snicker quietly in amusement. She ignored him. "I..." She had not really thought about what might happen once she got to the ball; she had been more concerned with showing up at all after her spat with Kimberly earlier. And, knowing how it usually made him want to roll his eyes, she certainly had not expected _Jason _to ask her to dance. Zack, maybe. But...

Realizing that she was stalling and Jason was still waiting for an answer, she said, "I was looking for Kimberly, actually, but I guess -"

"Come on, it'll be fun," Zack added, his eyes gleaming mischievously. As the strains of music grew louder, Trini realized why he was urging them on like that: this set was a dance for groups of four. If he could get Jason and Trini to accompany them, he would have an excuse to dance with his own date, Angela.

Sighing in resignation, Trini nodded her assent and let Jason take her by the hand. Surely she could at least spare the time for one dance, especially if she was also doing it as a favor to Zack. Still, she felt a great deal of nervousness rising up inside her as Jason led her over to where several other groups of dancers had assembled. Zack and Angela followed behind, taking their places as the dance began in earnest.

It turned out that Trini's trepidation was not misplaced. Only a few steps into the dance, it was already apparent that she was badly out of practice; this was the first official dance since the plague struck, and in the meantime dance practice had been far from her mind. Whatever skill she might once have had at dancing had slipped away.

Luckily, Jason and the others did not seem to notice. Zack and Angela were totally focused on each other, or at least as much as the intricate dance steps allowed, and Jason had never been all that good at dancing - and did not care that much about it – anyway. Somehow the four of them muddled through, and Zack even managed not to laugh when Trini stepped on his feet during the brief parts of the dance that had her dancing with him instead of with Jason.

It seemed as if an eternity - and at the same time only a few moments - had passed when the music finally began to wind to a halt. More or less in time with the final notes, the dancers all struck their final poses before paying their respects to the musicians. Those who would not participate in the next dance filed off the dance floor to be replaced by others in turn. Almost before Trini realized it, Zack and Angela had slipped away, leaving her alone with Jason. At least he hadn't disappeared yet, and he didn't seem particularly inclined to wander off; his hand was a warm, steadying pressure against her lower back. "You okay?"

"I should," she began, then hesitated. Her thoughts seemed scattered to the winds. "I should find Kimberly," she finished resolutely.

"Can't I have you to myself for a little bit?" he asked quietly. "I've missed you."

The request made Trini feel more conflicted than she would have liked to admit. She had missed him lately, too. She would have liked nothing more than to spend the entire ball having fun and entertaining herself with friends and frivolities, but her duty was first and foremost to Kimberly. But, recalling that she had argued with the Princess yesterday and was in no real rush to speak to her, beyond the obligation of handmaiden to lady, she opted to compromise. "One more song."

"I'm not going to get a better offer than that, am I?"

He added a little pout that _almost_ swayed her, but she shook her head, resolute in her decision.

"Then I'll just have to live with that," he said, and as the first slow chords of the next song filtered through the air, he added determinedly, "Or change your mind."

As they took their places for the dance, she realized it would have been exceedingly easy for him to change her mind. If there was one thing Kimberly knew how to do really well, it was plan and execute a stellar party, and the Princess's customary magic was not lacking in this gathering. Trini would have liked very much to forgo her duties to the Princess and spend the evening indulging herself with Jason. But she knew such fantasies were childish. She had her obligations and Jason had his. She would have to send him after Kimberly soon, she knew, or the gossips would never stop talking... but for now she forced herself to be content just to dance one more song with him.

This dance was slower and, with only two people to coordinate instead of four, it was also easier. As they slowly moved across the floor, they spoke quietly of inconsequential, unimportant things, but Trini didn't mind. It was nice to feel almost carefree again. She closed her eyes for a moment and let herself get swept up in the gentle music and soothing motion; she could feel the warmth of Jason's hands through her dress, and wondered if thin silk had been such a good idea.

But she could also feel herself finally beginning to relax, feel the past week's stress start to drain out of her at last. Spending time with Jason before confronting Kimberly had been a good idea, she thought. If she was more relaxed than tense, it could only help in her inevitable confrontation with the Princess. But she was getting ahead of herself. As the music came to its conclusion and the dancers stopped to politely applaud, it became apparent that his request for another dance, just the two of them, had not been so innocent as she had thought.

"The Yellow Knight has a ring just like this," he said tersely. Dumbly, she wondered when he had noticed that. True, she had been unable to get the ring to hide beneath the gloves it conjured for her use on the battlefield, but she had always been careful, or so she thought, to be unobtrusive and not draw too much attention her way. He caught her hand in his and drew it up between them so she had no room to deny it. "You know who he is, don't you?"

She tugged her hand out of his grip and met the question with a guilty silence and an averted gaze.

"I," she began, sending an imploring look his way and hoping against hope that he might see through this latest lie and realize just who was behind that knight's mask. "I know who he is... but I've been sworn to secrecy. I can't tell anyone, not even you."

Rather than making any sort of brilliant deduction based on the obvious lie, he just looked hurt.

She was saved from having to make any sort of additional excuse by a sudden commotion across the courtyard. She knew immediately, without even looking to find the cause, that it would have something to do with Kimberly, and so she was only half a step behind Jason as he raced over to investigate. Somewhere along the way, he acquired a sword; Trini found herself wishing she had her knives handy, but as weapons were not allowed at royal functions such as this, except in the hands of the royal guards, she had left them behind in her room.

She nearly ran into Jason when he came to a sudden stop, but when she caught sight of what had stopped him, she could only stare. She had expected trouble. She had not expected _this_.

One of the decorative arrangements of flowers had apparently grown to enormous proportions and acquired arms and legs in addition to its flowing tendrils of foliage. Somewhere among the flowers a face must have been hidden. It laughed in a high-pitched voice that made Trini's head ache. Distractedly, she noticed why it was so proud of itself. It had Kimberly wrapped up in a series of long vines, its hand clamped around her arm. The Princess appeared to be unconscious - or sleeping.

Curious, Trini made a point of looking for Tommy Oliver. He always seemed to be close at hand when these things happened, and he was near Kimberly now... but his fine shirt had been torn at one shoulder and a large bruise was purpling across his face, as if he had been struck there. He looked utterly horrified and more than a little angry, like he might be considering trying to fight the thing with his bare hands to ensure Kimberly's safety. Despite the rumors she had heard lately, she had a hard time believing he could have had anything to do with the sudden transformation of an innocent bouquet of flowers into a monster. In that moment it seemed to her that he must just be extremely unlucky.

"Be careful, don't go near it without a weapon!" she warned, as Jason shouted a brash, "Stay out of the way!"

Trini sighed. _Jason, this is not the time to be asserting your dominance!_

Jason seemed almost surprised when, upon seeing that he had a sword and therefore a better chance at rescuing Kimberly, Tommy backed off. Trini approved. This was not the time to be fighting amongst themselves. This was the time to stand united against the common foe, for the good of all.

Beside her, Jason looked for an opening. She realized suddenly that at some point over the course of her musing, throwing daggers had appeared, tucked into her soft leather boots. It was weird, for sure, but Trini was not about to question the magic that assisted her. Instead she crouched, drawing both the knives and taking aim toward the monster. The first blade clattered harmlessly aside, but the second one scored a hit, the blade sinking a couple of inches into the creature's body.

Jason looked at her askance, probably because he thought she had snuck weapons into the ball under everyone's noses, but told her, "Nice throw."

She nodded, but noted that her attack seemed to have had no effect on the monster whatsoever. Except, perhaps, to make it angrier and draw its attention toward her.

Cackling all the while, the monster suddenly lashed out and wrapped one of its vines around her waist. She tried to get out of the way, but it was faster than she was and she was caught almost before she knew what was happening. It pulled her in so quickly that not even Jason's quick reflexes could save her, and soon it had her in its grip just like Kimberly. She suddenly felt as if all the energy had been drained from her body, and fought against an overwhelming urge to sleep. Vines grew around her and spread, fairly cocooning her just like they had done with the Princess before her.

Trini struggled furiously, determined to break free, but her strength was fading fast. She lost her balance and fell, but somehow managed not to faint. Lightheaded, she wondered if her ring's magic had something to do with her ability to remain conscious under such an onslaught. But she had a feeling that, with or without the ring's protection, if she did not get free soon, this creature would steal the very life from her veins.

 

 

As soon as he saw what new monster had come to terrorize the castle, in what was becoming a rather disturbing routine, Zack made a beeline for his quarters. It was not a short jaunt, and he was winded by the time he got back, but he made the trip in what had to be record time. He returned in time to see that the monster had captured Trini as well as Kimberly, and that Jason was determined to take it down. Zack knew all too well that Jason was stubborn enough to attempt it on his own if he had to.

"Jase, who cuts down trees with a sword?" he asked, half as a joke and half to let Jason know he was ready and willing to help, and gestured toward the axe he had retrieved from his chambers.

Jason shook his head, an indication that this was not the time for jokes. "We have to get the girls free," he said urgently. "It's draining their energy."

Zack glanced to one side, half expecting Tommy to suddenly produce a weapon or magic spell, or some other solution, that would take care of the monster in a suitably heroic fashion, but the knight made no move to do so. Seeing that he and Jason were, for the most part, on their own, he suggested, "Let's see what happens if we cut off those vines that are holding them."

"Good idea. You take Trini. I'll get Kim."

They attacked together, but the monster did not seem to have the slightest problem fighting two opponents at the same time. It made good use of its dozens of vine tendrils, both as weapons and for forming a defensive shield, and they all seemed to work independently of each other. Zack hacked them off with his axe when he got the opportunity, but after only a few successes the monster realized what he was doing and stopped giving him openings.

Well. They weren't getting very far, but he supposed it counted for something that they had it on the defensive now.

"Zack, do you see how it doesn't move?" Jason asked suddenly.

"What are you talking about?"

"It strikes and defends, but it only stands in the one place," Jason explained hurriedly, keeping his gaze focused on the monster in front of him. "I think it can't move very well with two prisoners like that."

Zack had to admit it made sense. Not that either of the girls particularly weighed much, but keeping two women as feisty as Kimberly and Trini immobilized had to take a lot of effort, even for a... flower monster. "You're right. So what's the plan?"

"Move quick, get past its defenses, and try to cut the girls free," Jason said.

The monster cackled with glee. "You think you can get past me?"

Zack braced himself for an attack... and it never came.

Two doused torches sailed through the air from somewhere behind him and hit the monster solidly on the head. Suddenly the thing wasn't laughing anymore. "Nice shot!" someone shouted exuberantly; that would have to be the work of Rocky DeSantos and his two squires.

"Now!" Jason hissed.

The two knights moved quickly, dodging past belatedly flailing tendrils. Zack got in two solid chops with his axe before the monster caught him and tossed him aside, but it was enough to cut Trini free. She stayed where she had fallen, the flower monster's tendrils withering as soon as they were cut off from the main body of the creature. Zack leaped to his feet again, determined to reach her before the monster could get her again, but Billy and his date were already there to assist. Together they were able to pull Trini beyond the monster's reach; thankfully, Zack saw, she was already beginning to stir.

"Kat and I will tend to Trini," Billy promised. Of course, Billy's date – the blonde woman Zack hadn't recognized at first - was Katherine, the other archivist. Zack wondered where she had run off to for the past few months... "Keep your eyes on that monster. There's no telling what it may be capable of."

"Right." He glanced toward Jason, hoping for some sort of direction from the other knight. Unfortunately, he had little choice but to watch as Jason glowered and said something to Tommy, speaking too low for Zack to hear; Tommy, glaring right back, gave a curt nod and took Kimberly's limp form from Jason. While the matter was apparently settled for now, Zack had a feeling he should keep an eye on the two rivals in the future. With tensions running high and the melee tomorrow, this monster might not be the only thing they needed to worry about.

For its part, the monster looked at its dismembered limbs in disbelief, howling, "You'll pay for this!"

It immediately went on the offensive again, momentarily sending the knights - and spectators - scrambling backward. Jason finally put a stop to it by charging straight into the monster's next attack. Zack wasn't sure whether he should join Jason or try to find a weak point in the monster's defenses. They might have managed to free Kimberly and Trini, but it was evident that a decisive victory was going to take some work. And some strategy, which was not always Jason's strong point. And that particular flaw in Jason's character became especially apparent a moment later, when he charged toward the monster again, beyond caring about the danger, determined in his rage to take it down singlehandedly if he could.

Sensing that Jason did not need his help, at least not yet, Zack hung back from the fight. He kept an eye on the monster, watching for any sneaky tactics or obvious weak points, but also scrutinizing Tommy as best as he could. The other knight might not have made a move to intervene so far, but Zack was far from believing him innocent of all involvement in the strange occurrence. After all, Tommy had been, to all appearances, completely alone with Kimberly when the creature showed up. And now he was the only one keeping her safe from harm.

But every time Zack managed to sneak a glance, it seemed that all of Tommy's attention was entirely focused on the still-unconscious Princess. With Jason confronting the monster, Zack had a moment to worry about what might happen if Kimberly never woke up. If this monster had succeeded where the others had failed... he didn't want to think about the possibilities.

He turned his attention back to the fight in time to see the monster give off a puff of glowing red dust. Jason took the worst of it right in the face. The world seemed to balance on a razor's edge for a moment, everything suddenly slowing down and falling silent, before Jason swore and backed off. "Gah, it burns," he hissed. His sword clattered to the ground, and he rubbed ineffectually at his face. Zack could see that his eyes were red and watery, almost inflamed, from some irritation. Pollen, maybe. "Zack, be careful."

"I will," Zack promised. "But somebody's got to whack that weed before it can cause any serious damage. And," he added, hefting his axe again, "I've got just the thing to do it."

"You really think you can take me down with that measly axe?" the monster taunted.

Zack grinned. "I can. And I'll prove it." He just hoped it wasn't too late, that Jason and the girls would be okay. If they weren't... then death would be too good for this overgrown weed.

"Incendiary pollen," he heard Billy confirm from somewhere behind him. "Water should help alleviate the worst of the effects. However, we must evacuate the premises immediately, or everyone could be in very great danger. Sir DeSantos -"

"On it."

Relieved that someone had finally taken charge and would get the innocent bystanders to safety, Zack was able to concentrate better on the monster in front of him - and figuring out how to live up to his own boasting. "Hey, ugly," he said, "End of the road."

"That's what you think," it screeched, laughing all the while.

He wondered how it could possibly find everything so amusing. Unfortunately, he soon found out. It might have been slow and cumbersome before, lashing out only with its vine tendrils while remaining stationary, but it had also been weighed down by two prisoners. Now, without its burden, it was swift and proved to be a skilled warrior, effortlessly dodging most of his attacks. Its leaves were as tough as steel armor, harmlessly deflecting the blade of his axe, and he couldn't seem to find a weakness in its defense or its armor... until he remembered that Trini had managed to land a hit with one of her daggers before it took her down. She must have managed to hit a weak point.

Backing off momentarily to give it a careful inspection, he thought he could see the deep puncture wound in its body where Trini's dagger had been. He could see, now, that her dagger had slipped into a tiny gap between two of its armored leaves. If he aimed for that spot, he might be able to actually do some damage. The trick would be doing it without taking a blast to the face like Jason had. He did not have a shield, so there was no way to avoid getting hit if he got too close... but he could minimize the damage by keeping his face turned away from it.

Figuring it was now or never, Zack charged. As the monster let loose another burst of that flaming red pollen, he spun so that it caught him along the back rather than hitting him in the face.

It did burn, a lot. He could feel it all along his back, especially where the skin was exposed along his neck. But his plan had worked, and he had managed to avoid getting any pollen in his eyes or on his face. Carrying the momentum from his spin into a full turn, he lashed out with the axe again. The extra force seemed to do the trick: the blade hit its mark and sliced nearly halfway through the creature.

A moment later it, and all the pieces of it that had already been cut off, exploded.

Luckily, Rocky and Billy had managed to get the surrounding area clear of people, and Zack was the only one that ended up covered in the sticky residue that rained down after the monster's destruction. Momentarily stunned by its sudden disappearance, he simply stared for a moment at the spot where the creature had been.

And then he was abruptly swept up in a flurry of activity, as the supposedly evacuated attendees of the ball came flooding back in.

"Zack!" It was Angela. Her expression was somewhere between stricken and relieved.

"Hey Angela," he said, doing his best to sound casual. And to pretend that he wasn't covered in what he could only assume were monster guts.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded, her tone suddenly threatening violence. He made a mental note that she did not handle potentially mortal danger well, but that she looked especially good when she was worried about his safety.

"That overgrown flower was sucking the life out of the fairest ladies at the ball," he pointed out, thinking quickly in an attempt to turn the situation to his advantage. "I couldn't just stand by and let it take you _and _the Princess, could I?"

It was obvious that she had no idea what to say to that; apparently it had not occurred to her that she might have become a target had the monster taken notice of her, or that he had not only been defending the Princess, but her as well. She started to speak half a dozen times, always stopping herself, before finally settling on, "You idiot! You could have been killed!"

What she did next shocked him: she flung her arms around him, heedless of the mess covering him, and squeezed him tight. In front of most of the court, even.

Taken aback by the sudden turn in his fortunes, Zack let his arms come around her when she showed no signs of going anywhere. He had to fight to keep his expression suitably serious, when what he really wanted to do was grin like an idiot and shout for joy. Heroics: totally worth the extra effort.


	12. The Morning After

The world was spinning erratically, wobbling, threatening to send everything upon it toppling in disarray. Or at least that's how it felt to Kimberly. She tried to open her eyes, but it only made the sensation worse; she moaned her displeasure, clinging to the solid body that supported her. She realized dimly that she was being carried like a child, strong arms and broad chest the only stability in a world that had gone completely off-kilter.

"Shh, it'll be okay," someone soothed. Kimberly recognized the voice and wanted to die a little. Tommy. "She will be okay, right?" he asked. Someone answered from somewhere behind her, but her mind seemed to have gotten stuck on one particular detail.

No, no, _no_. This could _not_ be happening. Waking up in Tommy's arms should have been a dream come true. But Kimberly was hurting so much that it felt like a nightmare instead. How had her night gone from near perfect to... this?

Oh, right. The monster. She had been alone with Tommy, enjoying the masquerade ball, and then yet another monster had showed up. It had ripped her away from Tommy in spite of his best efforts to protect her, she remembered with a shudder. But she couldn't seem to recall much after that. She realized, feeling surprisingly numb, that the must have done something to her. But what? Did it even really matter, now that she was safe in Tommy's arms again?

And then she realized with abject horror that it might matter very much. What if it had made her ugly, turned her into a monster too?

Kimberly squirmed. Her attempted reprimand - "Put me down!" - came out as a wordless groan. And despite her urgent need for a mirror, Tommy did nothing of the sort. If anything he held her closer as she buried her face miserably against his shoulder.

He stopped walking for a moment, and the world seemed almost to right itself. Then there came the sound of a door being opened, almost painful to her ears, and then they were on their way again.

For a moment she tried to ignore the mass of people accompanying them and any ill-effects the monster's attack might have had, and instead held on to the pleasant idea of Tommy carrying her off to his bedchamber, like the hero in one of the cheap, silly story books Trini sometimes bought for her in town... but the fantasy didn't last long. Healers swarmed around as he stooped to deposit her on a bed; she knew she should have been upset at people seeing her so vulnerable, but she honestly cared more about the fact that she was now lying on a soft bed that did not seem inclined to move. Except, she realized sourly, it wasn't her bed or Tommy's, but Jason's. She was borrowing his quarters because a monster had punched a giant hole in the wall of her bedroom.

She frowned. It seemed like every time she tried to indulge herself with thoughts that maybe her life wouldn't be ruined in the near future, something had to go and remind her of Jason. Couldn't he leave her alone for one night?

But she realized almost immediately that her anger was misplaced. She might be in his chambers... her chambers... whatever these were now that she was the one using them, but he was nowhere in evidence. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed like that might be a bad thing. Later. It could be a bad thing _later_. Now she was just glad to have one less person crushing in around her.

She was shaking. She'd hardly noticed it until this moment. When she reached out after Tommy, someone took her hand and sat next to her, whispering soothingly. A cool hand smoothed her hair over her forehead. Somewhere along the line she had lost her elaborate mask.

"All right," an authoritative female voice rose above the rest, "everybody that isn't a healer: OUT!"

At first she thought it might have been Trini, but the voice was all wrong. And besides, she realized, opening her eyes a little, Trini was the one sitting next to her on the bed, holding her hand.

"Tommy," Kim murmured. She didn't want him to leave her, no matter what.

"He can stay," Trini promised.

She had to move out of the way then to make room for the healers to thoroughly examine Kimberly, but true to her word, Tommy was allowed to stay. And when the healers had finished poking and prodding her and pronounced her perfectly healthy and _finally _took their leave, Aisha and Trini looked the other way when he found a place beside her on the bed and held her until she slept.

 

 

Rita watched the night's proceedings through her scrying pool and scowled furiously. That monster should have been a success! And in a way it was, she thought, watching how the healers allowed her Green Knight to remain with the Princess while most of the others were ushered out... except that obnoxious handmaiden, Trini. That girl was almost as bad as Jason.

_Keep an eye on that girl_, she commanded.

Tommy looked startled at the sudden intrusion into his thoughts, but the healers were too occupied with their wounded Princess to notice.

_She's trouble_, Rita added.

_"Which one?"_ Tommy asked finally.

_Trini, you idiot! What do you mean, 'which one'?_

Tommy gave her a ferocious scowl of his own, making her wonder if he knew she could see him. _"Aisha's here, too, you know."_

_Keep an eye on her, too_, she decided momentarily. She didn't think this Aisha was particularly dangerous, but she _was _too observant and intuitive for her own good and that could become a problem if Rita and Tommy weren't careful.

_"I've got other things to worry about right now,"_ Tommy said angrily, and that was the last she could get out of him.

Rita fumed. Where had her spell of control gone wrong? Tommy had been perfectly obedient the day she ensnared him, but she could feel that her control over him had steadily been slipping since then. His early fear of her had vanished, leaving quite an attitude problem in its place, and he never seemed to obey her where the Princess was concerned.

She ignored the fact that thus far his intuition regarding the Princess had always proved correct. It irked that he even thought of disobedience.

Rita went back to her spellbooks and pored back over the spell she had used. She had recited each word exactly as it was written. And Tommy had been the perfect candidate. Everything had been right! It could be that the spell weakened with distance, or there could be interference from somewhere.

She felt the beginning of a headache coming on, as if her sour temper needed any help.

If that stupid Princess was inadvertently doing something to undermine _her_ glorious magic, Rita was going to make doubly sure she paid for the transgression. But first things first. She must make the magic crown hers, and all the power that came with it. Only then could she have her fun with the Princess.

She returned to her scrying pool to glower at Tommy. He was still with the Princess, sitting beside her on the bed, holding her while she slept as a lover might. _You had better not fail me, my Green Knight..._

 

 

Jason was not particularly surprised to find Kimberly's door unguarded. The castle guards had been doing a less than stellar job ever since the King and Queen were taken by the plague, and the situation had grown steadily worse with the recent outbreaks of strange activity, like monsters. The guards were not cowardly men; against human opponents they would have fared much better. But in a supernatural foe they saw only death. Not that Jason could really blame them.

These monsters were dangerous, extremely so. He and the other knights were lucky that they had been able to keep things under control thus far. But if they did not figure out the cause soon, they could be in big trouble. Not for the first time, Jason cursed Zordon's absence. The old sorcerer might have frustrated Kimberly with his insistence that she marry as soon as possible, but he would have known what to do.

But Zordon was gone, for whatever reason, and they would just have to muddle through on their own.

Jason sighed and knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" a voice asked from the other side.

He paused for a moment, surprised. He'd been expecting Trini to answer, but this sounded more like... "Aisha? It's Jason."

The lock clicked loudly and the door opened a crack.

"You look like hell," Aisha observed.

He didn't bother to respond to that. Of course he looked like hell: he'd lost a fight with a monster only a few hours ago. The healers had only discharged him, with orders to go directly to his chambers and rest, a few minutes ago. "How's Kimberly?" he asked, resisting the urge to rub at the sore skin around his eyes for the umpteenth time that night. It seemed like every time he even thought of it, it burned anew.

Aisha slipped out the door, letting it close behind her so she could lean against it. "The healers are gone. She's sleeping now. And I mean natural sleep, not that weird, half-conscious... whatever she was doing before."

"She'll be okay, then?"

"They say all we can do now is let her sleep it off, and then we'll see. But I think she will be okay."

"That's good." If Kim was doing well, that meant everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, and the annoying nobles who had already started planning for the contingency of her death - some of them, Jason knew, going so far as to start acting on those plans - would have to give it a rest. "How about Trini?"

Aisha shrugged. "She seemed fine when she was here."

"She's not here now?"

"Went down to the archives to talk to Billy an hour or so ago."

Jason didn't say anything for a moment. It seemed odd that Trini had bounced back from the monster's attack so quickly, while Kim was still suffering from it. And he got the impression that was exactly the point Aisha was trying to make. Maybe she was doing better because it had captured her much later than Kimberly... but he thought it would be a good idea to go check on her before heading back to his quarters for some much-needed - and healer-ordered - sleep.

"I'll go see how she's holding up," he decided aloud.

Aisha nodded approvingly. "You do that, and I'll keep an eye on the Princess."

"I owe you one."

She shooed him down the hall. "It's the least I can do. Go see how Trini's doing, and then take care of yourself. You're not going to win any fights if you feel as bad as you look!"

That last comment was shouted cheerfully after him and nearly made him twitch. But he was determined not to let it faze him. He made a quick stop at the castle kitchens - he knew Trini too well to think she had stopped to eat after what happened at the Masquerade - and then headed down to the archives. She must have gone there to talk to Billy; it would be like the two of them to try to find an explanation or precedent for the night's events.

It was quiet and darker than usual in the archives. Most of the apprentices were nowhere to be found. After the masquerade ball, most of them would have gone home for the night. But not Billy and Trini. And Katherine, Jason saw belatedly as he found his way to the archivists' customary meeting place. It had been a while since Jason had come to this place; he was pleased to find that he still remembered the way, and that he'd been right about Trini, too.

She was sound asleep at one of the worktables, her head resting on her folded arms, an open book underneath. She had put up a strong front, but the monster's attack must have taken a lot out of her, too.

Nearby, Billy and Kat were conversing about something in low tones. They looked up, startled, at hearing him enter. He managed a grin and held up the tray he'd been carrying, laden with leftover food from the night's party.

After they had all had something to eat, and had set some aside for Trini, Jason sat back and fixed both archivists with a stern look. He hadn't bothered to ask, but he had a very strong feeling that he knew what they - and Trini - were doing down here so late on the night of a royal ball. Considering how the ball had ended, it didn't take a genius to figure it out. "So. Any ideas yet?"

Billy glanced to Katherine, but she was staring down at the table before her. Not exactly what Jason would call an encouraging sign.

"There's nothing about anything like this in the archives," Katherine burst out, at the same moment as Billy more soberly said, "The relevant information has been removed from the archives."

"Wait, what? Why hasn't anyone been informed of this?" Jason sputtered, disbelieving. Someone had stolen from the archives? He couldn't imagine what anyone would want with a bunch of old books.

Billy's expression was deadly serious. "We do not know who is responsible, nor what the motive may have been, and decided it was wisest to keep things under wraps until more information comes to light."

"What, exactly, is missing?"

"Everything related to magic and supernatural creatures has been removed," Billy said simply. Jason found that hard to believe, but the look in the archivist's eyes said he was being truthful.

"So we have no idea what is going on or how to stop it."

Billy shook his head; Katherine looked more and more ready to wilt with each word he said. Clearly, they blamed themselves for this problem. Jason supposed outright telling them that whatever had happened wasn't their fault would do no good whatsoever; that would have been far too simple. So he looked at them expectantly and hoped that between the two of them they could think of something to say, or that Trini would wake up and solve all his problems like she usually did. But she was out cold, blissfully unaware of the world around her. He envied her that; he was beginning to feel the long day acutely.

"As soon as we find something, you'll know," Katherine said, the determination in her voice belying her earlier shyness. "But there's no evidence and no pattern. Everything that has anything to do with magic is just _gone_."

Jason wondered just how long this had been going on, and what all the implications might be, but he knew better than to ask. Tensions were running too high tonight. It would be better if they all got some sleep and tackled the problems in the morning. But how to convince _them _of that?

"Maybe," he began, just as Katherine said the same thing. He gestured for her to continue. She colored a little, embarrassed at having interrupted, but went on, "Maybe we'd be able to see things more clearly after a night's rest."

Jason hid a grin. "That's exactly what I was about to say." And he was glad she had said it, too. Her cooperation would make it that much easier to convince Billy.

The young archivist knew when he was beaten, but to his credit he still tried to put up a fight. "There won't be _time_ in the morning. With the melee and -"

But Katherine had him beat there, too. "Maybe not for _you_. But I don't have any extra responsibilities in the morning... There is nothing stopping me from continuing from wherever we leave off tonight."

Billy managed a rather impressive glare – Jason could tell he'd been spending too much time around Trini lately – but eventually gave in to the logic his friends had presented. There was little he could do to argue with their points. And besides, there were very few people who could out-stubborn Jason.

"Fine," Billy acquiesced at last, realizing that they weren't going anywhere without him. "I will retire for the evening, but only if you give me your word that I will be informed the instant any important discovery is made, regardless of what else is happening at the time."

Katherine smiled. "Of course."

The two archivists let him usher them toward the exit, but he paused for a moment. When they realized he had stopped, they stopped walking, too.

He glanced at Trini, still asleep at the table. "Should we wake her?"

Billy shook his head. "Let her sleep. She's perfectly safe down here – it's knowledge that's been stolen, not people. And besides, if we wake her up, she'll just keep looking for an answer until she's asleep on her feet again."

Jason tried not to let his amusement show. Trini was always quick to inform her friends that she knew her limits, thank-you-very-much, but those who knew her best knew otherwise. She had a tendency to push herself entirely too hard, given the necessary provocation.

She would probably be angry in the morning, but at least she looked anything but stressed now. She had obviously needed the rest, if she could sleep – and so peacefully! - like that. But just leaving her there like that seemed somehow wrong.

Frowning, and without really stopping to think about it, Jason unclasped the heavy red velvet cloak from around his neck. It was one of the showier parts of the dress uniform he had worn to the masquerade, but it would serve. It was a matter of a few seconds to walk back to where she was sleeping and drape it over her like a blanket.

Better, he thought. And at least this way she would know to blame him for this instead of Billy or Katherine.

"Okay," he announced, resuming his role of usher to the archivists as if he'd never deviated from his mission for a moment. "Both of you, time to go get some sleep."

 

 

Katherine sat in her small chamber for a long time, just staring at the candle's flame. It was late, but she wasn't ready to sleep yet. If she had to admit it, she was afraid to blow that candle out, to douse that small light.

She had never been afraid of the dark before, even as a young child. Nighttime had always seemed soft and peaceful to her, the very opposite of threatening.

Not so, tonight.

Tonight the shadows seemed full of monsters.

She had always told herself that monsters belonged to the realm of fairy stories. Magic might exist, but surely foul creatures born of its power were nothing but myth. Magic protected the kingdom and its people. It didn't hurt people. It couldn't be perverted into something like _this_.

Except that now she knew it could. She had seen it with her own two eyes.

It frightened her.

And, worse, it had touched something inside of her. Something dark and unpleasant that wanted very, very badly to be let out.

She summoned all the courage she possessed, and blew out the candle. And for the rest of the night, she lay huddled on her small bed, afraid to sleep because every time she closed her eyes she saw the visage of a beautiful woman standing before her.

A beautiful woman... with a scorpion's tail, ready to strike.

 

 

Kimberly's morning began a whole lot better than her night had ended. And that was even counting the fact that she was up and awake with the dawn, an occurrence she ordinarily dreaded. But when she woke up beside her favorite knight, the man who made her heart beat fast and all negative thought flee from her head, nothing could seem bad.

She had thought at first she was dreaming, that this cocoon of safety and warmth was nothing more than the creation of her mind, but it was all too real. Tommy looked so innocent and sweet when he was sleeping, but the sound of her quiet giggle at the thought woke him up. He stared at her with concerned eyes that told her he was every bit as surprised as she was to wake up together.

"Kimberly?" he asked, his voice still rough with sleep.

She cuddled closer to him, suddenly utterly unselfconscious. It didn't even bother her that she was still wearing what was left of her rumpled and half destroyed gown from the ball the night before, that all that separated them was the blanket someone had covered her with during the night. She still couldn't quite believe this was really happening, but she definitely did not want it to end any time soon.

But it had to. And she knew that.

It still hurt when it came down to it.

"I had better go prepare for the melee," he said at last. It made everything seem suddenly awkward. And just that easily, he rose and purposefully strode toward the door, but he hesitated before going out.

"And I have to get back to looking pretty and brainless while everyone else picks out the right man for me to marry," she grumbled. It pained her to see him leaving – when he hadn't even kissed her good-morning! - and the idea of being denied his presence after having actually had it was making her grumpy.

He paused, turned to look at her again, left the door to the bedchamber shut. "Why don't they trust you to pick the right man on your own?"

It was a good question, and one for which she had no answer. "Because they don't trust me," she said at last. "They", the court folk, did not trust her to rule and never had. Her parents had not even trusted her with the secrets of her bloodline, and that was the reason the kingdom was in its current predicament in the first place.

If only they had just _told_ her...

But instead the rulers of the noble families ran her kingdom, while she was forced to sit attendance on the tournament field and smile at knights she hated more and more each day.

Tommy was frowning. "Why not?"

"I don't know." She sounded horribly quiet and lost, even to her own ears. She hated seeming weak and sad in front of him, of all people, but it only seemed to make him more protective of her. And she had felt lost for so long that the comfort he provided was beyond welcome.

_He_ trusted and valued her, even if no one else did.

"If they don't trust you, can't they just replace you?"

"Because I'm the Princess, the only child of the blood, so they can't or they'd have to overturn the way things have been done for a thousand years, and give up the magic that keeps us all safe. But they can make me marry the man of their choosing, who will then rule for me." Until the words were out, she hadn't realized just how bitter such constant mistrust made her feel. "I wish it could be you."

"It still can be, can't it?"

Her heart skipped a beat at the suggestion. "I don't know. Everyone else is so dead set on it being Jason..."_ And they haven't listened to me about anything else... well, _Trini_ listens, at least._ But even Trini disregarded her concerns about this.

"Then I'll just have to prove I'm the better option."

"Tommy..." _First you'd have to beat Jason, and I'm not even sure that's possible anymore_, Kimberly thought morosely, but she did not put voice to it. She didn't want to discourage him. If anything, she wanted to encourage him as much as she could without getting into trouble.

"I won't let you down. I'll do everything I can to win," he promised. "For you."

In spite of all the work undoubtedly ahead of her today, Kimberly's heart soared.

 

 

Trini groaned and swatted at the hand that was shaking her awake. It was far too early to be up and about, she was sure of it. And she'd been having such a _nice _dream, too...

"Trini, wake up," Billy insisted. "It's almost noon."

She knew from the sound of his voice that she couldn't delay any longer and blearily raised her head, realizing with some embarrassment that she had fallen asleep at her worktable and spent the night and most of the morning in the archives.

Something in her neck pulled unpleasantly. She groaned, and let her head fall back to where it had been pillowed on her arms. But Billy was nothing if not persistent; she knew he wouldn't go away until he got what he wanted. And since it was Billy, what he wanted was probably something important.

With more effort than she would have liked to admit, she forced herself to sit upright. The cloak that had been draped over her shoulders slithered to the ground in a rush of red velvet. Glancing to one side, she noticed that there was a candied apple, a leftover from last night's banquet, sitting on the table beside her. Her stomach, empty since the midday meal yesterday, ached at the sight. Those had always been her favorites, but she had not had a chance to swipe one yesterday before everything went wrong, and by that time her appetite had disappeared. "Jason was here?" she asked with a frown.

Billy nodded. "You were already asleep."

It figured. Neither of them had thought to wake her up and send her back to her room for the night, which meant that the ache in her neck was entirely their fault.

She rubbed ineffectually at protesting muscles, took a determined bite out of her apple, and asked, "Is the melee still on for today?"

"It would certainly seem like it," Billy told her. "Kimberly seems to have been fully restored."

"Thank goodness."

"Yes, that's all to the better," he agreed. "But if you're up to it, she still wants you on the tourney field today."

Trini groaned again and seriously considered collapsing back against the table and feigning illness. It was probably too late for that, so she worked on finishing her breakfast instead. "She's still on that?"

Billy nodded. "It is her belief that it will appear 'suspicious' if the Yellow Knight disappears before the tournament is officially over."

Leave it to Kimberly to finally come up with a logical explanation for her ridiculous demands. Still, Trini was reluctant. She ached all over, and she was not in the mood for fighting. Although on second thought, physical exertion might help take care of her bad mood. What was the worst that could happen?

She knew the answer even as she asked herself the question. Injury. Death. Serious injury or loss of life on the tourney field were rare, but not unheard of. Especially during the melee, which was easily the most dangerous part of the tournament, being a largely unsupervised - and unsupervisable - brawl. The very idea made her nervous.

But Kimberly was Princess. And what she wanted, she got.

Trini sighed. She finished her apple and got to her feet in a rush that made her feel unpleasantly weak. She pushed past the feeling, knowing that the magic from her ring would rejuvenate her.

"Let's go."

As she followed Billy out of the archives and toward the royal stable, where her horse and the stable boy she'd been bribing to care for the animal and keep her secret awaited, she sincerely hoped this would be her last appearance as the masked Yellow Knight.


	13. Free for All

The melee was a long-standing tournament tradition, and as such was accompanied by much pomp and ceremony. Everyone that had seen any portion of the tournament up until this point made sure to turn out again to cheer for their favorite contender in the melee. The tournament grounds were filled with a loud and bustling crowd long before the midday start of the event.

Rocky DeSantos did not particularly see the point. Most of the melee would in all likelihood not actually take place on the tournament field, where people could safely watch, but in the great forest reserved as a playground for the royal family and its favored vassals. The knights were allowed, during this one event, to take the battle wherever they pleased so long as innocent lives were not endangered in the process, and that usually meant heading straight into the forest.

Given recent events, Rocky sincerely hoped that no one would come to serious injury during the fight, although there were a few knights he hoped to see sporting some impressive bruises by the end of the day.

"Well, you're as ready as I can make you, I think," Aisha mused dryly. She drew him out of his thoughts with a solid pat on the back that made his armor clank unpleasantly.

He sighed and turned to fix her with a stern look. "You know what to do today, right?"

She nodded, suddenly entirely sober.

"Stay with the Princess," he went on, "and do not let her out of your sight no matter what happens."

She glared right back at him. "You don't have to tell me twice. Who do you think stayed with her last night to make sure everything was okay?"

"That's my girl," he said with a smile, because it would annoy her.

She snorted. She wasn't his girl or anyone else's but her own, and they both knew it.

"Enough with the lovey-dovey act," Adam broke in sternly, although his tone betrayed his amusement. "We've all got work to do today."

Aisha tugged Rocky's face down so she could plant a kiss on his cheek – and stuff something into his hand – before returning to her day's duties. He watched her go, feeling a little bemused at the sudden display of affection (but upon further reflection he had never understood Aisha's ever-changing moods), and spared a moment to investigate the favor she had left him. A handkerchief in the burnished gold shade that was her favorite, painstakingly embroidered with her family's sacred symbol: the bear. He didn't know when she'd had the time to make it, but it worried him. For her to give him a token like this meant that she had a strong feeling of foreboding about today's battle. And if she didn't even want to tell him why... that was not a good sign.

He glanced at Adam, who nodded. He probably understood the significance even better than Rocky did.

"You know I've got my eyes open for trouble," he said, handing Rocky his helmet.

Rocky nodded. While squires like Adam and Aisha weren't technically allowed on the field of battle during the melee, as it could be quite dangerous, they all wore bright pink banners pinned across one shoulder to identify them as non-combatants (Princess Kimberly's idea), and were allowed to assist their knights in any way that did not involve fighting for them. It would not be out of line to shout a warning or provide a replacement for a lost weapon or help a fallen knight get out of harm's way.

He trusted Adam to watch his back; he'd need all the help he could get. There would be a lot to watch out for during the battle.

Realizing that there was no more time left for delay, he mounted his horse and made his way to the tournament field. There, he let himself get caught up in the carefully controlled chaos. It seemed like there were knights milling about everywhere, with no rhyme or reason. But as Princess Kimberly took her place, ready to announce the start of this, the final event of her tournament, the chaos began to resolve itself into some semblance of order.

The knights had been arbitrarily divided into two 'teams' for the start of the melee, in order to simulate an actual battle, although Rocky noted that rumored arch-rivals Jason Scott and Tommy Oliver had coincidentally ended up on opposite sides. If those two decided to fight in single combat, which they had not been called to do during the tournament proper, things could get pretty interesting - or really ugly. Rocky kept an eye on them with some trepidation. He didn't think Jason would let anger get the better of him, but he didn't know much at all about Tommy.

He supposed if they decided to kill each other it wasn't his problem and there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it that didn't involve potential serious injury, but that didn't mean he liked the idea at all. He had always admired Jason, and the Princess seemed pretty smitten with Tommy, so it sounded like a no-win situation.

He had not reached any sort of definitive conclusion, beyond wondering if Aisha could glare dueling knights into submission, when Kimberly finished giving her commencement speech. He had somehow managed to miss the entire thing, lost in his mental wanderings, but he supposed in the long run it didn't matter all that much. Over the past few years he had competed in enough tournaments to know that the opening speeches were pretty much all the same with a few minor variations.

What was more important was not getting himself killed in the ensuing brawl.

At Kimberly's word, the knights leaped (more or less) into action. But on the whole what followed was a remarkably self-contained melee. Most of the fighting actually took place within the fenced-off tournament ring, with relatively few knights breaking away to lead the customary chases into the royal forest. Rocky had to admit he was a little disappointed by that. He did not enjoy the chasing so much as the chance to try different tactics across different terrain.

Even so, with the stakes so high the fighting was fierce. Those who had been defeated in the joust were determined to demonstrate their prowess in the melee, the last chance they would get. Rocky held his own well enough for quite a while, but as the fighting wore on his attention began to wane. He had never been spectacularly good at taking these things seriously enough.

He never saw the blow that felled him coming. Something struck the back of his helmet, probably a mace, and Rocky fell from his horse, seeing stars. Somehow, Adam found him in the midst of the fray and managed to get him to safety on the sidelines. Adam even managed to get Rocky's helmet off without causing further injury, even though it now bore an impressive dent. They sat there in silence for a while, catching their breath.

While Rocky nursed his aching head, wishing faintly that Aisha was there to kiss it better, Adam scrutinized the tourney field. It was largely empty now, save for small pockets of half-hearted fighting here and there. "This is not good," he muttered under his breath.

"What isn't good?"

"Do you see what I see? Or rather, what I _don't_ see?"

Rocky frowned. He was going to have the mother of all headaches after this, and Adam wanted him to actually _think_? But even a quick glance revealed what the problem was. Amidst the dust and grime bits and flashes of color could still be seen... but there were distinct lacks. Red and gold, black and crimson, green and black, that bright, singular yellow. And official blue.

Somewhere in the fray, the tournament's four most prominent knights – and its arbiter – had all disappeared.

 

 

Jason did not like to admit it, mostly because it was generally frowned upon, but in his mind there was nothing quite like the rush of battle. He waded through the fray of the melee striking wherever he could find an opening, his quick wits keeping him from taking any serious damage himself.

What had begun as a pitched battle had quickly devolved into a brawl, which was now splintering into smaller fights as knights teamed up to defeat and disqualify their opponents. Jason deliberately avoided being pulled into any of those, though not for lack of trying on his opponents' part, which resulted in more than a few defeated knights. Instead he made his way around the edges of the different groups and kept his eyes open for opportunity – and incoming attacks.

Here, Zack emerged triumphant from a one-on-one battle; there, the Yellow Knight was nearly unhorsed but somehow managed to hang on and yet again miraculously escape defeat, at least for the moment. And over there... Tommy Oliver. Haughty in his fine black and green armor, sitting proud atop his steed and simply watching the fight's progress as if actually participating was beneath him. As if he had already won.

If there was one thing Jason couldn't stand, it was blatant arrogance.

"Tommy!" He shouted, the challenge obvious in his voice. He wished he had something to throw, but settled for raising his sword instead. "Let's finish this!"

Tommy glanced almost boredly in Jason's direction, although it was hard to tell his expression with the helmet obscuring his face. But even when he took note of who had challenged him Tommy seemed almost entirely unconcerned, as if the inevitable battle was of no consequence. "Jason Scott... are you sure you want to try to take me?" he asked, unmoving as Jason drew close enough to attack. "Wouldn't want you to bite off more than you can chew."

"Don't make threats you can't back up."

"Who says I can't? You?" He dodged out of the way of Jason's strike, laughing.

Jason felt his anger burning even hotter than before. He made no response to Tommy's barb, but struck at him again, this time in earnest. And this time Tommy barely had time to get out of the way to avoid being hit full force.

With a sudden burst of speed, Tommy's horse wove around and past Jason and went airborne, easily leaping over the fence to land on the path on the other side. Spectators that had gathered there scattered to avoid being crushed. Amid the chaos, Tommy paused and turned back. "Then we'll fight on my terms. Unless you're afraid you can't beat me alone."

Furious, Jason hesitated for all of a moment to get a better grip on himself.

Zack came up beside him and, seeing just how angry he was, commented, "Man, what did he say to you?"

"He's going down," Jason bit out.

"You going after him? Or are you going to wait for him to slink back with his tail between his legs?"

For a moment Jason was tempted to just let the other knight run away, but only for a moment. Sure, he _could_ let Tommy look the coward, but catching the egotistical jerk and beating the stuffing out of him would be far more satisfying. Without answering Zack, he spurred his horse forward. They cleared the fence with practiced ease and raced toward the forest as Tommy disappeared among the trees.

He heard shouts and the sounds of pursuit behind him, but he did not bother to look back. Whoever was coming after him, they would never catch him, and he had his prey in his sights. It was only a matter of time before he claimed his victory.

 

 

Kimberly found herself glancing surreptitiously in the direction of the forest as she had every few minutes since early afternoon. Somewhere, a bell pealed the hour. It was past time for dinner, and she was sure there were plenty of duties waiting for her, but she could not bring herself to go back inside the castle yet. She wanted to wait a few minutes more, just as she had all afternoon. She wanted to be standing here, waiting, when Tommy came back in triumph.

It wasn't as glamorous as the joust, but it would prove his worth just as effectively. A demonstration of his strength and cunning would force the nobles to reconsider him as an alternative to Jason, or at least she fervently hoped it would. But there was no sign of him – or Jason or Trini, for that matter. They had been gone for hours now. And that was starting to worry her.

_Where are you, Tommy?_

"Princess," Aisha interjected quietly.

She had almost forgotten that Aisha was keeping her company. Trying to hide how startled she was, she asked, "Yes?"

The expression on Aisha's face was one Kimberly had seen a thousand times. Without saying anything at all, it told her loud and clear that she wasn't going to want to hear what Aisha had to say. And she knew she was going to have to listen anyway, whether she liked it or not. "Just tell me."

"Be careful."

When it became obvious, after a long pause, that that was all Aisha was going to say, Kimberly let her consternation show. "Be careful? That's it? About what?"

"With your heart," was the cryptic response. "It's not Jason Scott you're waiting so patiently for, but he is the one that will be chosen for you."

Kimberly scowled, hating to hear that so baldly said... but she had to admit Aisha was probably right. It was no secret at all that the nobles wanted Jason Scott as their next King, and with them all set against her there was very little she could do but suffer through it. She _knew_ all of that, but she still wanted to cling to her hope. "Why are you telling me this?"

"So you can start preparing yourself for it."

"What if I don't want to prepare for it?"

Aisha smiled softly. "I was hoping you would say that. I've been hoping for a chance to tell you this... I want you to know that a political marriage doesn't have to be the worst thing ever, nor does it have to mean the end for your happiness." Kimberly's frown deepened. Aisha went on, "Marry Jason, get your Heir off him like everyone else wants you to, and when your duty is done, take a lover who can truly make you happy."

She made it sound so simple, but Kimberly knew the ugly reality of being the unwanted child of political duty, with a parent inclined to stray. She had hated her father for his infidelities all these years, and still could not seem to see his many mistresses as anything but disgusting insults to her mother. She couldn't put another person in that position. She just...

"I... I can't do that."

Aisha was all sympathy. "What your father did to you and your mother was selfish, betraying a wife and daughter who loved him." Kimberly wondered for a moment where Aisha had heard all of this, since as far as she knew the complications of the matter had never been public knowledge, but she did not ask about it. "But love isn't something that need only be shared between two people. It can just as easily bind three as two, if the three hearts are open with one another."

The suggestion left Kim feeling flustered. Was Aisha trying to say that she...? Jason... _and_ Tommy?

But it would never work. Jason and Tommy all but hated each other, and even with Tommy involved she couldn't picture herself with Jason without wanting to cringe. It did not sound all that appealing, but it might be better than the alternatives, and it would be within her power as Queen, if Jason would agree to it.

But if she could just have Tommy, would it really be so bad to let Jason find his own happiness somewhere else? She shook her head, as if that might help clear it. She didn't want to be unloved and unhappy, but she didn't want to feel selfish and guilty for the rest of her days, either. What would it do to her child, her daughter, to see that her parents did not love one another?

Once she had grown old enough to understand what her father's straying meant, Kimberly had felt plunged into insecurity. It had taken her many years to get past that feeling of being unwanted, and she still resented her father for making her feel like that, no matter how hard she tried to forget it. As a child she had sworn never to do the things he had done, never to make her own child feel that way about her, and yet here she was, seriously contemplating doing just that.

It was all way too complicated, and the worst part was that it did not have to be. If her counselors would just _trust_ her for once...

She was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of this, so she opted to change the subject rather than continue discussing it. "So, where are your friends tonight?" she asked. Aisha gave her a curious look, so she elaborated. "Rocky, and..."

She couldn't quite remember the other name, but Aisha understood her intention and grinned. "Rocky and Adam? Oh, they're probably off making out somewhere. Consolation for not winning in the melee."

Kimberly was suddenly quite certain that all the stress from the past few weeks was getting to her. Clearly she was hearing things and Aisha had not just said that a knight of the realm and his squire were 'probably off making out somewhere'. And if she had, she was joking, right?

Rocky was competing in the tournament to win a chance at being King... Aisha wouldn't want to damage his admittedly minimal chances by letting Kim know he was already involved with someone else, would she? But aside from her initial shock, Kim had to admit there was a certain appeal in the idea of two such good looking men as Rocky and Adam being together like that. Her interest was piqued. She would definitely have to pay more attention to those two in the future, if just to see for herself whether or not Aisha had been messing with her. Or at least that was what she told herself.

And then she realized that with one off-hand comment, Aisha had successfully distracted her from all of her own problems. She could use more friends like that.

"I... should get going," she decided after a long and rather awkward pause. It was getting late and Aisha was right, she couldn't just wait out here all night hoping. As Princess, she had other duties to attend. "But will you stay with me, Aisha? I just don't want to be alone right now."

Aisha bowed slightly. "Of course. I'll stay as long as you want me to."

 

 

Even though it was a relatively short distance from the castle where he had spent most of his life, Zack would never have guessed that this place existed. He was not particularly thrilled at having spent the last few hours pointlessly chasing Tommy Oliver through the forest, but this sight almost made it worth it. The forest, which had shifted more toward evergreens as they drew closer to the distant mountains, was hiding the ruins of what had once been a grand cathedral.

All around enormous, carefully constructed walls made of huge blocks of hewn stone rose from the ground, a few sections still standing, others toppled and weatherworn. Here and there the muted light filtered through fragments of ancient stained glass, tinting small patches of the ground with unlikely colors. In its day, the building must have been both monumental and beautiful.

It was still beautiful. It was also incredibly spooky.

Inexplicably, the place was filled with tendrils of silver-white fog. It made Zack's skin prickle unpleasantly and gave him the sensation of being the hare as the falcon swoops down on it from above. He glanced up once, but there were no monsters to be seen. The sky had simply turned overcast.

As he guided his horse through the ruins, he saw that the ground fell away at the far end of the ruin to form a steep cliff. At the bottom rushed the great river, which ran from the mountains through the city and past the castle, and then on and on, finally looping back to the sea, far far away. He could hear the river from here, but the ruin would not be visible from below.

He shrugged off a shiver. He felt suddenly and utterly alone despite knowing that Jason, Billy, Tommy, and the Yellow Knight were all nearby – even if Tommy had disappeared into the ruins without a trace. It occurred to him, in a dim way, that the combatants from the melee shouldn't range this far from the castle. Whatever was about to happen... Tommy had not led them here by chance.

He could be lurking behind any of the decrepit walls, just waiting for a chance to take them out, one by one.

But Zack's attempts at preparing himself for an ambush were in vain. Tommy was waiting for them in the open, standing under a massive archway that must once have supported an enormous room. He remained perfectly still, perfectly calm, and waited for his pursuers to come to a stop before him.

"Your meddling ends here," he said simply, when they had assembled. "In an unfortunate _accident_."

Something about the way he said it sent a chill down Zack's spine, and not just because of _what_ he had said. Tommy really was crazy. He was a skilled fighter, but he was outnumbered. If he tried to go after Jason now, Zack would be there to help. And so, he hoped, would the Yellow Knight. Which meant that unless he had a lot of men hiding in the forest, it was very unlikely that Tommy would be able to take Jason down.

But he was not speaking to Jason, Zack realized, but to all of them.

He intended to kill them all.

"Oh no," Zack muttered, not that any of the others were close enough to hear him.

Tommy talking to himself in the hallway, always showing up just in time to save Kimberly from the latest monster... it should have been obvious, but they hadn't wanted to believe that a knight of the realm could lose his mind and go rogue. But he had. And if the monsters that had been plaguing the castle really were his doing, then they were in a great deal of trouble.

"Billy, get out of here!" Jason ordered.

The arbiter stood his ground.

Zack couldn't blame him. He was curious, too. He knew he should run, but he wanted to see what Tommy's game was. Just how dangerous was this guy?

Tommy laughed and turned his back on them, his black cloak billowing outward, caught in a sudden breeze. He strode slowly toward the archway behind him. The wind carried faint words back to the four onlookers, but they were not words in any language Zack had ever heard. But he did not need to recognize their form to know their intent. This was magic. This was how monsters came into being.

Beneath him, his horse stirred restively. He couldn't blame the beast for feeling unnerved; he wanted to run, too, run very far away, but he would not abandon Jason and Billy.

Out of the corner of one eye, he watched the Yellow Knight dismount, unable to calm his steed.

"Jason," Zack said, hearing his voice as if someone else spoke, "We should get out of here."

But Jason gave no sign of having heard him at all. All of his attention was focused on the knight in front of him. For better or worse, Jason was committing himself to whatever Tommy was planning; only one of them would leave this place in one piece. Jason would never allow a plot such as this to go unaddressed or unpunished.

Zack's heart pounded erratically. On an ordinary day, he wouldn't have worried. But today, against Tommy... against what was obviously _magic_... "Jason."

The air within the archway began to glow green. Tommy did not stop speaking the words to whatever spell he was reciting. His back was still turned to them, but Zack got the impression he was smiling. And why not, when his victims stood placidly by and waited to meet their fate?

"Damn it, Jason!"

Jason still did not bother to respond. He didn't have to. Tommy was no longer speaking. He had turned to face them once more; a wicked grin marred his face. Behind him, the faint green glow had become a brilliant green light. The ground rumbled ominously and the light coalesced into a form, a gateway, and from it emerged a creature out of nightmare.

The first impression Zack got was of flailing tentacles and scaly, slimy skin, but that was not the worst of it. It had a long, snakelike neck topped by a bony head with huge eyes and enormous jaws, almost like an eagle's beak. A whiplike tail and strong legs tipped with vicious claws completed the monstrous ensemble. And it only became more horrific when he realized the beast was not slow and cumbersome but wickedly fast. "Billy," he began, "What is that thing?"

"I have never seen anything like it," Billy confessed.

"It looks like a dragon wearing a really big octopus on its back."

"Who cares _what_ it is?" Jason interjected. "If we don't stop it, we're dead."

"How are we supposed to 'stop' something that big?" Zack retorted.

Across the clearing, Tommy spoke to his monster, though Zack could not make out the words. Suddenly, the... what ever it was turned to its enemies, lowered its head, and roared. The sound was loud enough to rattle Zack's bones; he wondered if they could hear it all the way back at the castle.

As the monster gathered itself for a charge, Jason chuckled. "Haven't you ever read the stories, Zack?"

Zack groaned. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"Billy, take cover. We don't know what this thing is capable of," Jason ordered tersely. "And if this doesn't go as planned, _run_. Someone has to warn the Princess."

Billy's answer was lost in the rush as the monster charged. Jason's sword flashed free of its sheath and he circled the beast, looking for an opening.

Beneath him, Zack's horse panicked, trying to flee into the woods. Zack would have really liked to panic, too, but he knew he couldn't afford to. Jason was going to need his help. In the end, he opted to dismount and let the terrified horse run. He hoped he wouldn't need the extra speed later, but at least this way he didn't have the added distraction to worry about and could focus more on helping Jason.

And from the look of things when Zack finally regained his bearings, Jason was going to need all the help he could get.

The monster hadn't stopped to wait for Zack to come back. Jason had somehow managed to keep it from catching him so far, but his luck was about to run out. With effortless ease, it plucked him from his horse's back and hurled him to the ground. But before it could land a decisive blow, it rose up on its hind legs and howled with rage. Its sinuous neck arched backward, and Zack could see that the Yellow Knight had thrown one of his knives. The hilt of that knife now protruded from the monster's eye.

"Nice shot!" he called, making his way over to where Jason had fallen. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he said, getting to his feet, but Zack could tell he was angry now. "I'm going to kill that thing, and then I'm going to hunt Tommy down and kick his sorry ass into next week."

"Yeah, but _how_?" Zack countered. He could understand Jason's anger, but he didn't really think anger alone would be enough to ensure a win here. In fact, he was beginning to think a retreat and regroup would be the best plan of action. They just didn't have enough people here to take on a monster of that size.

"Let's back it up toward the cliff," Jason decided. "If we can corner it, we can limit its mobility and we might have a better chance."

Or it could just trample them and have done with it, but Zack did not point that out. He understood the need to keep the monster here, far away from the castle and the city. But the idea of taking on the monster with only three knights and one archivist just scared the living daylights out of him. But if Jason was determined to try... Zack wouldn't willingly be anywhere but beside him, trying his best to help.

"Are you ready to do this?" Jason asked.

"As I'll ever be," Zack assured him, though he wasn't feeling nearly as confident as he sounded.

On Jason's other side, the Yellow Knight gave a strong nod.

Seeing the other knight, a newcomer and stranger to the kingdom, ready to stand and die beside them, Zack felt a sudden pang of regret and wished he had tried harder to find out who that Yellow Knight really was. He wasn't really a very good knight, but there was definitely something mysterious about him. It would have been nice to find out who he was and why he always wore that mask before they all met their sordid fate.

The monster let out another roar, but this time it was the knights that moved. They formed a line and ran toward the cliff's edge, hoping to lead the monster into cornering itself. It gave chase, but stopped well back from the edge and would not budge, no matter how they harassed it. Not wanting to get trapped themselves, the knights had to fight their way back around the monster to put it between them and the cliff.

It was dangerous to get too close to it, and after a few minutes of fruitless fighting the only one that had done any more damage to the monster was the Yellow Knight. He did not need to get too close to use his throwing knives, but he had only had two of those and now they were both gone, embedded in the monster's flesh. But those blades were far too small to do enough damage to kill the beast. They may as well have not even hit it at all.

This was not working quite as planned. Of course. Jason's plans seldom turned out as intended.

"Keep pushing it backward!" Billy shouted suddenly. "Toward the cliff! If my calculations are correct," he did not need to add that they always were, "the precipice should give way under the creature's weight!"

Zack stared at him for a moment. He should have thought of that, too. Sure, it wasn't a guarantee the monster would die, but no matter how strong it was, it would certainly be injured in such a fall. And at the very least it would be out of their hair for a while, giving them time to get reinforcements.

But could they do it? They would have to be careful, would have to find a way to push the creature back far enough, without getting caught in the ensuing fall themselves. Zack watched for an opening to make a move, but he was afraid if he got any closer that the waving tentacles might catch hold of him. He considered throwing his axe, but then he would be weaponless, save for his belt-knife, and they still had Tommy to contend with.

"We're going to have to get close to it for that to work," Jason mused aloud. "Keep me covered."

It was definitely not the most brilliant plan ever, but even Zack could see they were running out of options. If they didn't get close enough to hurt the thing soon, they were going to end up being overwhelmed. So he followed and did not complain about the idiocy of it all as Jason charged straight for the nearest of the monster's legs. While Jason attacked the creature itself, Zack hacked at any of the tentacles that got close. On the other side, the Yellow Knight did the same.

For a while it seemed to be working well enough. The monster was bleeding, at least. But it had had enough of their foolishness, and struck at them with its head. It was wickedly fast and the knights had only an instant to get out of the way. That bony beak did not look like something Zack wanted to mess with.

The knights dodged and scattered, but the blow was followed immediately by a rush of tentacles.

Using his axe as a makeshift shield, Zack stumbled backward but managed to avoid being grabbed. Jason tumbled to one side, dropping his sword in the process, but he had recovered the weapon and regained his feet a moment later. The Yellow Knight got caught in the tentacles. He managed to break free, but he lost his sword in the process. Zack sighed. Who had taught that guy to fight so terribly?

"We're almost there," Jason said. It sounded like this last attempt had taken a lot out of him. Zack could feel his own energy waning, too. "We have to try again."

Zack had been afraid he would say that, but he knew they had no choice. They couldn't let that thing get past them, or it could kill thousands of innocent people if it found its way to the city.

"I'll cover you this time, Zack," Jason decided. "And you," he added, turning to the Yellow Knight, "stay out of the way."

The Yellow Knight shook his head. Great, the guy was not only mostly inept, he was suicidal.

At least he would be a distraction.

"Let's do this, then."

This being the stupidest, most suicidal thing Zack had ever done in his life. And considering how much time he had spent with Jason, that was saying something.

But he did it anyway, because there was really nothing else to do. It was now or never.

The three knights charged again and, somehow, managed to get the monster to start moving backward. Zack headed straight for its wounded leg, leaving Jason and the Yellow Knight to keep the tentacles busy. Jason hacked the tentacles off by the dozens as they came at him, and the Yellow Knight was fighting remarkably well without any weapon at all.

Granted, it was slow going and the monster seemed mostly impervious to their attacks, but they were visibly making progress. By the time Zack reached his goal, it had already taken several steps backward in an attempt to get a better angle of attack. He ended up dodging a jab from the creature's nasty beak by ducking behind the leg he had been planning to attack. He hoped that Jason and the Yellow Knight would be okay, and set to work trying to hack through the thing's leg like he would a dead tree.

He got in several good whacks before it had had enough and reared up on its hind legs, roaring in fury. It was very near to the cliff's edge now.

"Please tell me that's close enough," Zack gasped as he raced out from under it. He had no desire whatsoever to end up being stomped to death.

The monster, still on its hind legs, took a last step back. Its roar diminished to a low growl; and then with no further warning it slammed its front legs back to the ground and attacked with its tentacles. Somehow, Zack leaped clear of the fray without getting caught. Jason and the Yellow Knight were not so lucky.

Zack saw it happen as if time had slowed to a standstill. The tentacle that crept past its enemies' guard to catch the Yellow Knight by the ankle, yanking him off his feet. The strained earth groaning and beginning to give way beneath the monster's weight. Jason's frantic grab for the other knight as the ground beneath them shifted and came loose... But it was all of it too slow, too late. In the end he could only watch in horror as the cliff edge crumbled away and the monster fell - taking Jason and the Yellow Knight with it.


	14. The Black Knight

Rita Repulsa looked into her scrying pool and cackled with glee. Her Green Knight had served her well today. He had been showing some rather alarming signs of rebellion lately, but getting him away from the Princess and back into action had taken care of that.

She had not expected things to go as well as they had, but the entire plan had gone off without a hitch. Finster had created the perfect monster, and she had given Tommy the means to summon it, but there had still been a dozen different things that could have gone horribly wrong. But instead Tommy had led the most meddlesome of Princess Kimberly's friends to their doom, just as planned, and was now on his way back to the castle to claim his prize.

So far as Rita was concerned, it was all simply marvelous. The Crown and all its power would soon be within her grasp.

And the best part of it all was that Jason Scott would no longer be standing in her way. Without him, the kingdom was practically ripe for the picking. Rita smiled cruelly. The man was ridiculously easy to manipulate when he was looking for reasons to be angry, and she couldn't have found a more perfect way to take advantage of that than Tommy. She was delighted not only to have found the key to his downfall, but to have used it to rid the world of one more obnoxious goody two-shoes.

She knew from experience that people like Jason Scott were dangerous. If you didn't take care of them quickly, they'd bug you forever.

But with him gone, it would be smooth sailing from here. None of the other knights were as big a threat to her long term plans as Jason had been, and with the Princess entirely under Tommy's sway there wouldn't be anyone left with enough power to stop Rita from getting what she wanted.

It was nice to have things go her way for a change. Finally, things were starting to turn around.

Rita laughed again in delight, and turned away from her scrying pool for the first time in hours. "Goldar! Fetch me some of that fancy bubbly wine! Tonight we celebrate!"

 

 

Billy stared in horror at the edge of the cliff, which only a moment before had extended much further and had held an enormous, draconian monster and two of his closest friends. Two of his closest friends that he could now assume were either dead or seriously wounded, fallen down a good fifty feet of cliff face along with the monster they had been trying to defeat.

It took him several moments to collect his scattered wits, but fortunately Zack was just as flabbergasted and horrified as he was. Or perhaps not, since Zack had given no indication that he realized just who the Yellow Knight was. He would be mourning Jason and a masked stranger, not Jason and Trini.

Well, Billy realized, now was not the time to tell him the truth. Right now, he needed Zack to focus. Someone had to stop Tommy from doing whatever he was on his way to do, and Zack was the best candidate. He was a capable warrior, he had witnessed Jason's demise and Tommy's evil actions, and, most importantly, he was _here_.

"Zack," he began, his voice shaky. He could feel his palms sweat at the realization that he was about to take charge in a very precarious situation. The fate of the entire kingdom could rest on what he did next.

In response to Billy's nervous opening, the knight loosed a string of curses that would have made a sailor proud, culminating in a horrified, "What are we going to do now?"

Billy suspected that Zack was already aware of what needed to be done, but that he was torn between loyalty to his oldest friend and loyalty to the Princess. Not that Billy could particularly blame him for feeling that his duty lay with Jason, rather than Kimberly; it was, after all, her tournament that had led them to this plight in the first place. But she could never have known that it would end like this. And she certainly was not responsible for Tommy's actions.

And if Billy had to guess, he would suspect that Kimberly would be the next unfortunate soul to meet with Tommy. Thoughts of Tommy persuading the Princess that Jason's death had been the result of a duel to the death, rather than at the hands of a monster Tommy himself had summoned, made Billy's blood run cold. If a man as dangerous as Tommy were to become king...

That thought did not bear finishing. Instead, Billy focused his energy on working out exactly what he and Zack could do to prevent such an event from occurring.

"We must not lose hope, but we must assume that the worst possible scenario may have come to pass and take the necessary precautions to protect Kimberly from danger. Without its rightful queen, the kingdom will be plunged into political turmoil."

"Right," Zack said, looking a little lost. "What do you want me to do?"

"You must go after Tommy. I do not think he would harm Kimberly, but she may be in grave danger and you are the only one left that could hope to defeat Tommy."

"What about you?"

"I intend to find a way down that escarpment."

Zack made a face that said, loud and clear even without words, that he thought Billy had lost his mind. "But that _thing _is down there."

"And, if he is still alive, so is Jason," Billy pointed out. "He may need help. I cannot hope to stop a warrior like Tommy; he would simply incapacitate me. But I can assist Jason if he is injured. Therefore -"

"I have to go after Tommy, while you do what you can to help Jason."

"Precisely."

It was obvious that Zack did not like the plan and would have much rather accompanied Billy in his quest to find Jason, but he also knew that as a knight his responsibility was first and foremost to the Princess and her kingdom. Which meant that Billy was right: they each had to play their part or they were doomed for sure. And they might be doomed, even so.

But they had to try.

"Come on then," Zack said. "If I'm going to catch up to Tommy, we don't have any time to waste."

They spent far more time than Billy would have liked tracking down their horses, and then went their separate ways. Zack headed as quickly as possible back toward the castle while Billy made his way with more trepidation toward the river. He went on foot, not trusting himself to ride, and led his horse and those of his companions behind him.

It was a long time before he found a safe path down to the river. And by then the sun was low on the horizon and, despite his best efforts, his hope at finding his friends alive was dwindling.

 

 

Jason felt like a drowned rat. A half-frozen drowned rat, courtesy of the cold mountain water that formed the river. All things considered, it was preferable to the alternative, but he was less than pleased. He hauled himself out of the shallow pool he'd ended up in and waded, shaking slightly from the chill, up onto the shore. Methodically, he took stock of his situation.

He did not seem to be injured, or at least nothing hurt more than anything else. His armor was intact, mostly. The helm was missing and what was left was soaked from his plunge into the river. His sword was long gone, a pity, since he'd been fond of that sword, but he still had his belt knife. Everything else he'd had was, presumably, still with his horse. Wherever that might be.

Looking around, he realized that the river had carried him quite a distance in a very short time. That, or he had been unconscious a lot longer than he thought he had. There was no sign of the tentacled monster or even the high cliffs, but there, downstream a bit, he caught sight of something yellow in the water. The Yellow Knight.

He picked his way closer, careful not to trip and fall amid the rocks that covered the shore. He knew he should be trying to find a way back to where he had left Billy and Zack, but he couldn't just leave the Yellow Knight here. And he had to admit he was curious. Just who was that guy, anyway? This could be his best opportunity to find out.

It did not take him long to realize that something was wrong. The outline of the still form, lying on its side with its back facing toward Jason, seemed to be all wrong. The cut and color of the clothing were not what he remembered, and that tangle of long black hair...

His eyes went wide as he drew closer and the truth became irrefutable. The Yellow Knight wasn't a knight at all. "Trini?"

She made no response. From this distance it looked like she wasn't even breathing.

"Trini!" As he scrambled to her side, he felt a strong pang of guilt. He should have seen this coming, and done something to prevent it. The fresh calluses on her hands, the masquerade ball and the ring, every time she had evaded his questions and dismissed his concerns... She had given him every opportunity to realize what was going on, but he hadn't paid close enough attention. To be honest, he had simply assumed she was smarter than that.

And now she was nearly dead because of it.

When he made it back to the castle, Kimberly was going to get an earful about this. Trini's predicament reeked of her handiwork.

As much as he wanted to track Kimberly down and give her a piece of his mind, right this instant, he knew that he needed to keep his priorities in order. He would have to deal with Kimberly later and trust Zack to keep Tommy from destroying the entire kingdom. Right now, Trini needed help and there was no one to give it but him.

He tugged her up out of the water, almost cradling her in his arms, and had the distinctly unpleasant realization that it would probably break his heart if she didn't survive this.

She stirred slightly as he moved her, coughing up water, but that was not what caught Jason's attention. It was the way she seemed to shimmer as she came briefly awake, her appearance altering to that of the Yellow Knight. It happened so quickly that at first he wasn't entirely sure what he had just seen. But there was really no mistaking it. That was definitely magic.

He frowned. When had she learned to do that? And why had she never told him?

He supposed none of that would matter if she died. "Come on, Trini. Wake up," he urged, but she gave no sign of having heard him. "We have to get back to the castle. I've got to stop Tommy from doing whatever he's planning."

When she did not respond, he muttered a curse under his breath and hauled her further up onto the shore. She wasn't particularly heavy, even sopping wet, but as dead weight she was awkward to maneuver. If she didn't wake up soon, he would have to carry her. With Tommy still on the loose, he did not have time to waste waiting for her to come around, but he couldn't just abandon her here either.

"If you don't wake up, I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you," he warned. She remained stubbornly unconscious, so he did exactly as he had threatened, somehow managing to keep his feet and not send both of them sprawling to the ground in the process.

Once he got up and moving the going was easier, even if he did have to carry Trini. He started to warm up and dry out, and the dazed feeling that had plagued him began to fade away.

There was a trail not far from the river. He stumbled onto it by accident, but decided to follow it as it went vaguely in the direction he felt he should go.

He followed the path for a little more than a mile, give or take, before it opened up into a scrubby clearing. The forest became sparser and he could see the beginnings of hills and cliffs forming on either side of the river. They were getting closer to where they had fallen.

Unfortunately, they were also running out of daylight. He did not particularly want to stop and make camp, but he knew better than to keep blundering on through unfamiliar terrain in the dark. In spite of his better judgment, he pressed on until the sun was little more than a fading orange glimmer on the horizon and the stars and moon were beginning to show themselves through the gloom.

He knew he should have stopped sooner when he saw several dark figures emerge from a stand of trees up ahead. It was too dark and too far to tell who it might be, but Jason immediately braced himself for the worst.

It had been harder than he would have liked to admit, carrying Trini all that way after the melee and the fight with Tommy's monster. And nearly drowning. He wasn't entirely sure he would win if this confrontation came to a fight.

But it never came to that. Another couple of steps closer and he was close enough to identify the newcomer by moonlight.

"Billy." And not just Billy, but all three of their horses; he had never felt so relieved in his life.

"Jason! You're alive!" Billy sounded jubilant. "And -"

Jason did not bother glaring at him, though he would have liked to. It was too dark and the effect would have been lost. And besides, he needed to get moving. He had lost enough time already. "She's still alive. At least right now. But she's been unconscious for a long time. We'll discuss this later."

"Of course."

"Where's Zack?"

"I sent him back to the castle, to do whatever he can to keep Tommy from getting to Kimberly."

"Good." Finding Billy had been a stroke of luck. It certainly made Jason's path much clearer. "Here, take her. I'm going after Zack."

He had been carrying Trini slung across his shoulders, but he shifted her now so that she was in his arms and would be easier to hand over to Billy. She stirred as he moved her, moaning quietly and clinging a little. He would have liked to stay with her until she woke up - _really_ woke up - but he knew he couldn't. Zack was going to need all the help he could get. So he let Billy take her, trusting in his old friend to take good care of her in his absence, and set off toward the city.

His horse was already tethered to Trini's, so he took them both so he could switch to a fresher mount when necessary, and tried not to look back. He had a long ride still ahead of him, and need to keep his wits about him and his attention focused on his ultimate objective. But as the forest closed in around him, he had to suppress the feeling that he was leaving his friends to the wolves... and racing headlong into the lion's den himself.

 

 

The race back to the city passed in a blur. It seemed at the same time to drag on for eternities as Zack picked his way through the dark and unfamiliar forest, and to be over far too quickly. The city rose into view long before he was ready to face what laid ahead of him, but he knew he could not afford to waste time on fear. He had seen no sign of Tommy during his return to the castle, and that worried him.

What if he had arrived long ago, and already managed to turn everyone against Zack?

He didn't think Trini would let that happen. Then again, someone like Tommy wouldn't hesitate to simply get rid of Trini if she became an obstacle to his ambitions.

Fighting against the fears that threatened to overcome him, Zack paused for a moment to form a plan of action. He'd made it back to the city in one piece; the question was how to proceed. He could go charging into a potentially hostile castle, spouting accusations and a wild story... or he could find another way in and hope to catch Kimberly alone and in a reasonable mood. And he had a feeling he knew just how to do that.

Rumors going back to the time of Kimberly's grandparents, or maybe even further, told of a secret tunnel connecting the royal quarters in the castle with one of the luxurious homes outside the castle walls. The King at that time had, supposedly, kept a secret lover at the estate and used the passage to reach her without arousing suspicion.

If the stories were true, he could use the secret tunnel to get into the castle without taking the winding road through the rest of the city. And, more importantly, without going in through the front gate.

And it just so happened that he had a close connection with one of the estate's residents, a certain fine, upstanding young woman named Angela.

It wasn't far from where he had entered the city, so he changed course slightly and headed that way instead of toward the road to the castle. If Angela was still staying at the estate, as she had been since the plague struck months ago, he was sure she would show him the shortcut to the castle.

The streets were dark and gloomy, but though he half expected Tommy to leap out of the shadows and attack, he saw no one. Finally, he came to the building he had been looking for. The large gate was shut and locked, and there was no guard to be seen. But that did not stop Zack for long; ages ago, Angela had told him the trick to getting the gate open without a key. True, she had told him never to use that knowledge again, after he had showed up to serenade her in the middle of the night and been summarily removed from the property by her elders, but he figured this was probably an exception to that rule.

He closed the gate behind him and locked it again for good measure, then made his way around to the back of the house. There was a light in the second story window that belonged to Angela's bedchamber, which he considered a good sign. He dismounted from his horse and searched the ground. Finding a likely looking pebble, he tossed it up toward her window. It bounced off with a nice tapping sound, but there was no response so he tried again. And again.

After the third strike, the window opened and Angela peered out, her expression darkening when she caught sight of Zack standing in the yard below.

"Angela," he called as discreetly as possible, "I need your help."

"Zack! What are you doing here? Where have you been?" she demanded.

"It's a really long story."

"With you it always is."

"I'm serious," he insisted. "Can you come down here so we can talk?"

For a moment she looked like she might tell him to leave, but then she gave in. "Okay, fine. I'll be right down."

He made his way around to the front of the house, but he still had to wait quite a while before she emerged. He was just starting to worry that she might be going to get him in trouble when the front door creaked open and Angela came out. It was immediately obvious what had taken her so long: she had stopped to change out of her nightgown and into one of her nicer dresses, complete with a cloak to ward off the night's chill.

"What happened today?" she asked. "You just... disappeared! Everyone's been worried sick about you and Jason and -"

"Has Tommy come back yet?"

"Not while I was still at the tourney grounds, but I left at sundown. Why? What does Tommy have to do with anything?"

"I need to get to the castle before he does."

"Then you had better get going," she said, frowning slightly. "Why did you come _here _if you need to go to the castle?"

He gave her a level look.

She grimaced. "Oh, come on, Zack. Those are just rumors... There is no secret passageway between here and the..." She trailed off, but he did not let her protests deter him. She looked almost guilty when she met his gaze next. "No, no, no. They may not _all_ be just rumors, but I can't let you in in the middle of the night just so you can take a shortcut home, Zack. My parents would kill me."

"Angela," he said, deadly serious. "Jason is dead. Tommy killed him. I need to get to the castle as quickly as possible to stop Tommy from hurting Kimberly, too."

She only hesitated another moment. "Okay. I'll show you where the passage is. But no one can find out about this."

"They won't hear it from me," he promised.

"You won't be able to bring your horse this way," Angela cautioned. "Come on, we'll hide him in the stable."

The private stable was small, but there were a few empty stalls. And one look from Angela had the sleepy stable boy seeing to the new arrival and agreeing to say nothing of the late hour.

Zack had thought they might find the hidden passage in the basement of the estate's main building, but Angela led him straight past the large house and out into the walled-in yard behind it. The entrance to the tunnel was hidden in plain sight at the back of the garden.

And it wasn't so much a tunnel as a path between the walled compounds around it. It only descended underground to pass below the castle's moat.

He hesitated at the entrance to the tunnel. It yawned before them, dark even in the gloom of the night. "There aren't any snakes or anything down there, are there?"

Angela just laughed and tugged him down the stairs after her. "You're the one that wanted to come this way."

"Yeah, but I thought it would be a little less... rustic."

"Sorry to shatter your dreams."

Just the thought that there were undoubtedly spiders down there in the dark with them was enough to give him a bad case of heebie-jeebies, but he knew he had to keep going. If Angela could brave the dark depths, so could he.

If Tommy hadn't come back to the castle yet, taking his sweet time in his presumed victory, no doubt, that meant Zack still had a chance to reach Kimberly first. And, hopefully, to convince her of Tommy's evil intentions.

But first he had to survive the tunnel. And in the pitch darkness, with creepy-crawlies potentially lurking everywhere, that was easier said than done.

After tripping over the uneven flooring stones for the second time, he asked, "Shouldn't we have brought a torch or something?"

"You want to choke on smoke the whole way?" she retorted. "I didn't want to waste time finding a lantern. Besides, it's a straight shot from here. We'll be okay."

"You've come through here before," he deduced, hurrying to keep up.

"Duh. Everyone in the family comes this way at least once, just to say they have."

He slowed for a moment; she tugged insistently at his hand. "And they never say anything about it to anyone outside the family?"

He could practically see her amused smile. "Think of it as a rite of passage." A moment later, she added, "Ah. I think we're here."

Somehow he managed to avoid running into her in the dark. She did something, which he could not see, that clicked loudly, and then the wall in front of them, which he had not even realized was a wall, fell away and they stepped into a corridor that was no less dark than the one they had just left behind.

Angela stepped away from him for a moment, and he felt horribly lost and disoriented. "There's usually... ah-hah!" A moment later she had a small lantern lit. "And we're in," she said, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, but _where _in the castle are we?" He had certainly never seen anything like this before in his explorations. It looked very, very old.

"So far as I can tell, it's about the oldest part of the castle," she replied, "but I don't have any idea what it was used for when it was still being used. Come on, this way."

A couple of twists and turns - and several scarily decrepit staircases - later, and they were back in the inhabited portions of the castle. They hurried toward the royal quarters as unobtrusively as they could. Considering the last day of a tournament was usually cause for a great deal of celebration, even late into the night, the place was oddly quiet. The city had been much the same, as if the people knew that something terrible was afoot in the night. It was starting to make Zack very nervous.

They finally encountered life, in the form of two bored looking guardsmen, when they reached the Princess's current quarters.

"I need to see the Princess," Zack told them breathlessly. "_We_ need to see the Princess," he amended, with a glance at Angela. When neither of the guards made a move to respond, he added, "It's _important_."

One of the guardsmen finally spoke up. "The Princess has given orders not to be disturbed, until..." He trailed off uncertainly as the door opened and Aisha poked her head out.

"Zack! Welcome back," she greeted. "Do you have news for the Princess?"

Having expected to see Trini, Zack was momentarily taken aback. "Yes," Angela said for him, with a glare in his direction.

Aisha gave them both a thorough look over, then she smiled. "Seeing as it's the middle of the night, you've obviously just come back from a hard ride and you look like you've just seen a ghost... I'm going to assume this is important," she decided. "Come in."

As Aisha ushered them in, Kimberly emerged from the bedroom at the back of the small suite and into the tiny sitting room, pulling a pink robe on over her elaborate nightgown. "Aisha, what's going on?" she asked. "I thought I said I didn't want to see anyone except -" She paused for a moment. "Zack and Angela? What are you doing here?"

Zack decided that there was no use in dancing around the issue, so he summed it up as bluntly as possible.

"Jason's dead. And the Yellow Knight, too." He hated having to say it like that. He had been trying hard not to think about it, to tell himself that since he had not yet seen proof one way or the other there was a chance Jason might still be alive, but every time the words came out of his mouth they seemed to make Jason's death somehow more real. Anger and deep sorrow warred within him; Angela squeezed his hand gently, an unexpected show of compassion. He hadn't realized she was still holding his hand.

"What?" Kimberly gasped out. She nearly staggered, but managed to keep her balance. "How? And... what about, what happened to Tommy? Why hasn't he come back yet?"

"Kim," he began, wondering how to make this less painful for her. "It was Tommy that killed Jason. I don't know why he hasn't come back here yet."

"No." The Princess shook her head vehemently. "It's not true. Tommy wouldn't do something like that."

Zack begged to differ. "I was there, Kim. I know what I saw."

When she looked ready to protest again, he headed her off. "I've known you since we were both kids, Kim. I count you as one of my best friends." He struggled to find a way to explain that he wanted her to be happy and safe more than just about anybody else, and ultimately gave up. There really wasn't much he could say. "Why would I lie to you about this?"

"You wouldn't," she admitted quietly. "But I... I don't understand. Why would he do something like that?"

He would have liked nothing better than to give her a hug and a shoulder to cry on, but duty dictated otherwise. Tommy could still show up at any time, and if he did, Zack needed to be ready for anything. And he needed Kimberly to be aware of what they might be up against.

So he told her, as briefly as he could, what had happened after he and Jason followed Tommy into the forest. By the time he had finished with the tale, all three women bore looks of horror, although Aisha and Kimberly were slowly edging more toward anger.

"Kimberly, it's okay," Aisha soothed, seeing the turmoil on the Princess's face.

"It's not," Kimberly insisted. "If Jason's dead, if... if Tommy's really a menace to the kingdom, if he's just been _using_ me all this time..." Her expression hardened. "I'm going to put a stop to this. Once and for all." She stormed out of the sitting room and into the hallway, ordering, "Zack, come with me."

He hurried to obey. "Shouldn't you stay here, where we can defend you?"

The look she gave him was as cold as ice. "No. If Tommy used magic to kill two of my knights today, then I will use magic to stop _him_."

After sharing a confused glance with Aisha and Angela, Zack followed her down the hall. The girls were hot on his heels, with the two bewildered guards trailing along behind. Zack had to admit, he didn't have the slightest idea what Kimberly might be planning when she made her way directly to the royal treasure room. This was really not the time to be wearing lots of old and expensive jewelry or looking at antique weaponry.

But Kimberly ignored the cases of jewels and the weapons that were on display in the treasure room. She even ignored the famed royal crown in favor of pacing agitatedly back and forth.

Zack did not want to point out that they probably did not have time for that, but they almost definitely did not have time for that. And every moment that slipped past set him more and more on edge. Where was Tommy? He thought he had won, didn't he? Or had Zack and Billy guessed wrong, and he had gone to make sure Jason was dead, first?

The sounds of a scuffle outside drifted into the room, along with warning shouts from the guards: that would be Tommy arriving. He must have arrived at the castle shortly after Zack did; Zack thanked his lucky stars that he had thought to ask Angela to show him the shortcut, or he would have arrived too late.

Now that Tommy had realized Kimberly wasn't where he expected her to be, and had likely been warned of his misdeeds, he would be beyond angry. It wouldn't take him long to get rid of the guards, and then...

Zack did not want to admit that he might not be able to stop Tommy, but he realized it was a distinct possibility. The man was ruthless. And if he had summoned a monster before, there was no guarantee he wouldn't do it again.

"Kim, we don't have much time left. I'll do my best to stop him from hurting you, but... do you trust me?" For some reason, with everything on the line, it seemed suddenly important that she believe him, and not think that he was lying to her for his own gain, or Jason's.

With a look that told him her heart was well and truly breaking, the Princess nodded. She paced across the room one last time, coming to a stop where the royal crown and other artifacts sat on their pedestals. Much to his surprise, she returned with the crown in her hands. He had a momentary panic that she was about to give it to him, but she did not. His confusion only increased when he realized she had also picked up a jeweled letter opener.

"I may pass out in a moment," Kimberly cautioned. "When I do, grab this stone and think 'armor'."

Baffled, Zack could only watch as Kimberly took hold of the royal crown and used the letter opener to pry one of the gemstones out of it. As the large black onyx came free of its setting, the Princess crumpled. Luckily, Aisha and Angela were there to catch her and keep her from swooning to the floor.

While his first instinct was to help Kimberly, Zack found himself oddly compelled to do as she had ordered. He carefully took the black stone from her and felt a momentary flash of panic as everything went suddenly white. But the white light passed in the span of a single heartbeat, and he found himself once again standing in the royal treasure chamber... but now he was clad in shining black armor and felt overflowing with energy, as if he had just woken from a good night's sleep.

And in his hand was an axe the likes of which he had never seen, except in his dreams. "This... this is awesome!"

He had barely finished that observation when Tommy Oliver appeared in the doorway, his expression one of fury and, surprisingly, horror. "What have you done to her?"

"Nothing," Zack replied. "She did it to herself, to give me the power to stop you."

Tommy drew his sword. "She's _mine_."

Zack had not expected that declaration, or the attack that came immediately after it. He dodged out of the way, feeling astonishingly light on his feet considering he was wearing full body armor. It was almost like the magic armor Kimberly had given him didn't weigh anything. He suddenly felt a lot more confident. Maybe he really could win this battle.

He parried Tommy's follow-up slash and took the offensive. Whatever magic Kim had used on him might have put him on equal footing with Tommy, but he still had a feeling he should try to stay in control of the fight and end it as quickly as possible. As they traded blows, Tommy aimed for all the weak points in Zack's armor, but Zack was quick to defend himself and turn the failed attacks to his advantage. He had not undergone years of rigorous training for nothing.

With every tactic Tommy tried, Zack tested him. Slashes, thrusts, parries, evasive maneuvers, some fancy moves he had never expected to actually use in a real battle... His confidence waning as he realized they were almost perfectly evenly matched, Zack was beginning to hope just to find a way to incapacitate Tommy. But no matter what he tried, Zack could never quite seem to get the upper hand long enough to put an end to it.

Finally, Tommy broke away and backed up a few steps. "That's enough of that. I'm getting bored," he sneered.

He came to a stop and raised his left hand, leaving himself momentarily open. But Zack did not have time to take advantage of the opening, because Tommy fired what could only be described as a bolt of greenish-blue energy right out of the palm of his hand. It moved too quickly for Zack to even consider dodging or blocking it; he barely had time to comprehend what had just happened before it struck.

The bolt hit him square in the chest, and while it did not strike him dead like a true bolt of lightning, the force of the impact sent him stumbling backward. It seemed somehow grossly unfair that, if he had magical abilities like that, he did not know how to use them.

Tommy smirked. "You really thought you could beat me? You don't have half my pow-"

Zack almost laughed when he saw what had cut the cocky bastard off mid-boast. Aisha had nailed him in the head with the butt end of an antique spear she'd pulled out of its wall mount. That would teach him to think that women were harmless.

Still reeling slightly from Tommy's magical attack, Zack surged back into the fray. At least he had armor to protect him from Tommy's attacks. If Tommy chose to go after her instead, Aisha had no way to defend herself from him, save for that spear. And Zack wasn't about to let it come to that.

He attacked furiously, his momentum nearly toppling both of the knights as Tommy sluggishly moved to defend himself. It would seem that Aisha had landed a solid hit and Tommy was still struggling to recover from it. Zack counted his blessings and steeled himself to move in for the kill.

And then he realized that blackish green smoke was seeping into the room from somewhere. It clung to pedestals and display cases, crept over to sweep around Angela and Kimberly; Aisha swung her spear experimentally in an attempt to dissipate it, but it stubbornly remained unharmed. It ultimately began to congregate near the center of the room, where Zack was still trying to fight Tommy.

The sensation from the smoke was bizarre and distracting, like little feelers touching his body and mind at the same time, searching for weak points. It burned in his lungs and made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. And clouds of it began to envelope Tommy. Soon it had filled almost half of the room, and it was impossible to even see his opponent.

Fearing that this might be some kind of new, more powerful magical attack, Zack backed off a bit. He swung his axe a couple more times for good measure, but struck only empty air. A few moments later, it was apparent that the smoke was disappearing. And, as the room cleared, it became equally obvious that Tommy Oliver was gone.


	15. Facing Reality

Rita was yelling before Tommy even finished appearing in her tower. The delay struck her has somewhat odd, considering she remembered that spell working faster than that. Then again, she had never worked that particular spell so quickly over such a great distance before. Not that it really mattered. What mattered was that Tommy would understand soon enough that his failures would not be tolerated in the future.

"I turned my back for _one minute_ and everything went wrong! How could you possibly mess everything up so quickly?"

"I didn't mess anything up," he retorted. "It was that stupid knight, Zack."

"Then how do you explain the fact that Jason Scott is still alive? You should have made sure he was dead before walking away!"

Tommy shrugged insolently. "You were the one urging me to go back to the castle and claim my victory. It's not my fault your monster didn't do its job."

Rita glared at him and considered yelling more, but he had a point. None of them had expected Finster's monster to simply disappear the moment it landed in the river, except maybe Finster. She would really have to chew him out for that one. There was absolutely no reason his monsters needed to take the term 'fatal flaw' so seriously.

Her life would have been much easier if he could create a monster that wouldn't explode the moment it was stabbed with a sword, or disappear upon touching water. But no, of course life couldn't be that easy. Life for Rita Repulsa was just one stinking headache after another. It always had been.

"Don't you go trying to use Finster's failings as an excuse for yours! I'm not letting you off the hook so easily. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'll just go back tomorrow and tell the Princess some story. She'll believe whatever I say," he said, as if he hadn't a care in the world. "And then Jason and his little friends will just have to accept it."

Rita scowled. "No way. You bungled this chance! I'm not going to give you another one just yet. You're going to wait here until I find a foolproof way to fix this mess!"

"What, are you going to chain me up to make me stay?"

"Idiot," she sniped. "Do you think you can just walk back to Kimberly's castle from here? It would take weeks, and by then it will be too late. I'll send you back, but only when the time is right."

He looked pretty angry about her decision, but he had to know she was right. And she fully intended to let that anger simmer. Maybe it would inspire him to do better next time. And, unfortunately, there would have to be a next time.

With Jason alive and Tommy out of the picture, albeit temporarily, Princess Kimberly would have little choice but to marry Jason and consolidate her power as quickly as possible. Rita could not afford to let those two get married. Once Kimberly gave her crown's power over to Jason, the only way to get it back from him would be to kill him, which would be much harder thanks to the magical protection that power would afford him.

She supposed she could also just bide her time until their daughter was born and simply steal and corrupt the child... but Rita had never been a fan of waiting. She wanted that power and she wanted it _now_, so her revenge might be complete that much sooner.

"What would you have me do, then?" Tommy asked, his tone grudgingly subservient. Rita wondered if she would have time to strengthen the spell on him to one of complete control, but ultimately decided that Kimberly would be alarmed by any sudden change in his personality, so it would be best not to risk it.

"You'll find some way to occupy yourself, I'm sure."

"Yes, my Queen," he said, but it was more derisive than respectful.

Rita's temper flared. "Do you remember what I told you before, when you first entered my service, about the green candle?" she asked as he turned to leave.

Her knight gave a small nod without looking back.

"Good. Because I won't hesitate to use it if your attitude does not improve!" She practically snarled, pacing the small room furiously. "Now begone from my sight! I have planning to do!"

 

 

Kimberly stared numbly at the place where Tommy had stood only a moment before. She had been unconscious, drifting in that weird dream place she ended up every time she separated one of the stones from her crown, for most of the fight between Zack and Tommy... but she had seen enough. Enough to set her world to crumbling apart all over again.

When Zack had showed up at her chambers in the middle of the night spouting tales of Tommy summoning monsters and murdering Jason in cold blood, she hadn't wanted to believe it. But the alternative would have been that one of her oldest and dearest friends was a liar, and she had seen nothing but horrified honesty in Zack's eyes. But even as she had made the fateful decision to give him the same power she had inadvertently given Trini, she had hoped to find that they had all overreacted, that everything had had happened would turn out to be a simple misunderstanding.

But Tommy's totally uncharacteristic behavior and dramatic exit had proved that something dark and dangerous was indeed afoot in the kingdom. She hadn't wanted to believe it, even a moment ago, but now she had little choice.

She had trusted Tommy, been willing to make him her King against the counsel of all her advisers. She had been willing to give him a kingdom. To give _herself_ over to him, heart and body and soul, and he had betrayed that trust. He had betrayed _her_.

How could she have been so wrong about him?

She had never been wrong about a person like that before. In fact, she generally prided herself on being an excellent judge of character. And yet somehow Tommy had managed to completely and utterly dupe her. She had thought him sweet and kind, even romantic, and it turned out he had been nothing short of ruthless in his ambition for the throne. Ruthless enough to kill another knight. She couldn't even remember the last time that had happened. Knights fought for sport, not to shed blood.

A handful of tears spilled down her cheeks. Tommy a traitor, and Jason dead.

It shouldn't have ended up like this. This wasn't what she had intended to happen at all.

She hadn't wanted to marry Jason, but it had never really occurred to her that he could be removed completely from the marriage problem... at least not like this. They had been close friends as children – he had been like the big brother she would never have. That closeness had continued as they grew up, right until the talk of marriage had turned serious and the plague killed her parents and messed everything up.

Something deep inside her constricted painfully as the loss finally started to sink in. She had been so impatient and awful to him lately, and now he was gone. She might not have wanted to marry him, but that didn't mean she had wanted him _dead _instead.

And as for Tommy... he had just seemed so _perfect_. She knew it wasn't true; she had seen the truth with her own eyes, the way he had viciously attacked and taunted Zack in order to get to her... and yet she couldn't seem to wrap her mind around it. She didn't want to.

All she wanted was to go back to yesterday, when she had woken up in Tommy's arms and everything had seemed so full of promise. Yesterday, before she knew that Tommy really only wanted the power she could give him. She realized that her thoughts were circling back on themselves, forming a pointless cycle of pain as she relived every moment she had spent with Tommy. She knew it was dangerous to let her pain consume her and struggled to push past it, to move forward... but all she really wanted to do was let her emotions spiral out of control.

She was tired of pretending to be strong. She wanted everyone to see her pain. But she was the Princess, and did not have the luxury of giving in to those urges. Instead, she must -

She became aware of gentle hands supporting her. A female voice asked, "Are you okay?"

Trini...

No, the woman who had just spoken was not Trini. She couldn't be. Trini was dead, killed alongside Jason.

It was not Trini, but Angela, the young woman who had accompanied Zack back to the castle to warn Kimberly of Tommy's treachery.

The trickle of tears turned into a torrent, and she couldn't seem to stop them. Trini couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. It would be too much to lose Trini and Jason and Tommy all at once.

As knights, men like Jason and Tommy understood from an early age that they might one day have to give up their lives in order to protect their sovereign and country (even though such things had not happened in living memory)... but in her selfishness she had forced Trini, an innocent handmaiden, to make that sacrifice. And in so doing she had cost herself her closest friend and most reliable confidante, just because she didn't want to marry Jason.

Trini had tried to warn her that something like this could happen, but she had been too stubborn and desperate to listen.

_I've been such an idiot!_

No wonder everyone thought she wasn't fit to rule. If she kept making stupid decisions like that, then all she would do was prove she really was as immature and unready as the nobles said she was.

_Trini, I promise I'm going to do better._

As that thought crossed her mind, she knew it meant that she needed to be strong. It meant she couldn't give in to her desire to give up, even for a few moments. She needed to recollect her wits and act like the Princess she was. The prospect was daunting, like trying to climb a mountain all alone. But she knew: she had to try. For Trini's sake, she could do no less.

She blinked away what she sincerely hoped would be the last of her tears, at least for the moment, and saw that Zack was now kneeling in front of her. He looked almost unreal, his black armor shining like rare volcanic glass in the dim light. "Kimberly, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she lied, and it was obvious that he didn't believe her. She wouldn't have believed those words either.

"I have to be honest," he said finally. "You don't look fine."

"I'm not," she admitted, her voice very quiet. If only she could tell him why. There might not be any harm in it now, with Trini gone, but she couldn't bring herself to own up to it just yet. If they knew how she had so recklessly endangered Trini's life, she feared that Zack and the others might turn away from her. She couldn't bear to lose them, too.

She must have looked pitiful and traumatized indeed, because the next thing she knew he had broken all protocol to wrap her up in a hug. It was uncomfortable, with all that armor he was wearing, but it was immensely comforting. He was warm and strong and alive, still ready and willing to protect her from whatever dangers might come their way. She had known Zack since they were both children; he would not betray her the way Tommy had, and she needed that reassurance more than anything else right now.

"Zack, what are we going to do?" she whispered against his shoulder.

"It'll be okay," he promised. "We'll figure something out."

Still teary-eyed, but somehow reassured, she nodded. "Of course."

As he let her go, he managed a smile. "Come on, Jason may have been the best, but he wasn't the only one with a sword – or a brain – around here."

He was right, of course. But, recent events notwithstanding, Jason had also been a friend to both of them. It wasn't going to be easy to simply carry on without him, no matter how optimistic Zack was trying to be. They would all need time to grieve, and she had a bad feeling that they were not going to get it.

Seeming to sense that Kimberly was just about at her wits' end, Aisha swooped into the awkward silence almost as soon as it had descended. She helped Kim stand up, offering the Princess a supportive, subtle strength and at the same time leaving Zack free to assist Angela. Even just standing beside the other woman, Kimberly felt some of her fear and horror diminish. With allies like Zack, Aisha, and Billy still around, she might actually be able to make something out of this terrible situation. Might.

"Come on," Aisha said. "Let's get you to bed."

"What good will that do?" Kim asked sullenly.

"At the very least you will be more comfortable there than sitting on the floor here," she pointed out, earning murmurs of agreement from Angela and Zack. "You should let go of all those tears and fears tonight, because you can't afford to let the nobles see them tomorrow."

"I can't sleep like this."

"You don't have to. But you should try to rest."

"I don't know if I can."

"I'll stay with you, and we'll call in extra guards to keep watch," Aisha soothed. "You don't have to worry."

"But if To- If _he_ comes back, he'll..."

"Hey, I got him pretty good once, didn't I? It won't be a problem to do it again."

As Aisha guided her back down the hall to her room, Kim decided that it would be easier just to give in, at least this once.

 

 

Trini had the sudden sensation of falling. A force stronger than gravity tugged her inexorably down and down, past an unimaginably high cliff; Jason had caught hold of her, trying to save her, but that only meant he would be dragged down with her. Couldn't he see that saving her would only get him killed?

She had been afraid that there would be rocks at the bottom of the cliff, but instead there was water. There were rocks, too, boulders and spires that made this part of the river unnavigable, and Trini struck two of them when she landed. The impact should have broken an arm and a leg, but while there was pain it quickly faded into a bizarre burning sensation. She fought for consciousness and felt the magic power from her ring buoy her toward awareness. She struggled against the current and, powered by the force of her desperation, managed to break the surface of the water.

Jason had managed to avoid the rocks and had landed cleanly in the water. But he had been dazed from the force of his landing and had sunk quickly. Thankfully, the monster that had pulled them over the cliff's edge with it had already disappeared.

Without the monster to worry about, she could concentrate on helping Jason. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself as much as possible, then dove down into the river after him.

The water was cold and blessedly clear. If it had been murky she might never have found him.

As it was, she had to struggle to reach him, catching hold of him just as she became certain he would escape her and drown. She pulled him toward her, adjusting her grip as quickly as possible and kicking hard to propel them upward.

She did not make as much progress as she would have liked. They had to reach the surface faster.

She deemed his helm expendable and tugged it off to make him lighter. There wasn't time to get him out of the rest of his armor, but every little bit would help. Determination fueling her, she fought even harder toward the surface, telling herself all the while that it wasn't _that_ far and of course she could get them there.

Her lungs and throat were burning by the time she got them to the surface. She managed to get one of his arms across her shoulders, making it somewhat easier to keep his head above water, and started toward the shore.

The river here was broad and deep, or else they definitely would have been killed when they landed, but the current was still noticeable and the maze of rocky spires made it treacherous. It was hard work to keep them both from going under, and every moment that passed saw the current carrying them further away from Billy and Zack. And, too, she knew that she needed to get them to the shore before her strength gave out and the current swept them away for good.

She had to take several breaks, clinging to any rocks that would support their combined weight, but she made steady progress. They drew closer and closer to the shore until it was finally within reach. Beside her, Jason blinked open bleary, confused eyes.

"Jason, stay awake for me, I need your help," she said, but his eyes drifted shut again. She tried to tell herself that at least that flicker of awareness meant he was alive, though she could not tell if he was actually unconscious or just very dazed. But none of that helped her very much. Especially when she hit something big and hard under the water a moment later. Cursing her bad luck as pain shot through her, it took her a moment to realize just what she had run into.

This wasn't just another rocky outcrop, this was a ledge that extended out from the shore. Trini clambered up onto it, banging her knees several times in the process, and hauled Jason after her. Or tried.

Without the added buoyancy of the deeper water, he was _heavy_. Too heavy for her overtaxed muscles. Pain screamed through her right arm, from where it had struck that rock on the way down, and she knew she would have to let Jason go. She simply couldn't pull him any farther.

"Come on, Jase," she panted wearily, "help me out here."

The water here was shallow enough that he wouldn't drown and shouldn't get pulled back out into the river, so she let him go and took a step back, trying in vain to catch her breath. If he would just wake up again, or if she could just find a little more strength... But as she stood up, she staggered and fell backward - right back into that icy, awful water. She realized with horror that she did not have the strength to get back up or to pull herself back out of the river. _I'm going to drown..._

She should have known there were limits to the topaz's power. Everything had limitations, even magic.

As the water pulled at her, she jolted awake and realized that it had only been a dream. The movement she felt was not the rushing of water, but the motion of a horse as it walked. Around her was a dark forest, not a river bank. It was nighttime.

Just a dream, and yet it had seemed so real. She couldn't get the fear or the smell of river water out of her mind.

"Jason," she murmured.

"He's safe," Billy told her. "On his way back to the castle."

It felt as if her brain was working much more slowly than usual. She was horribly confused at finding herself riding a horse and accompanied by Billy, of all people. Did that mean it had been a dream, then? No, it seemed right that she and Jason had really fallen off a cliff and into a river. The fuzzy part in her memory was how she had ended up with Billy instead of Jason.

It occurred to her that she had never been so exhausted in her life. "Thank goodness. I was afraid he would die."

"I do not comprehend how, but Jason survived without injury."

After a rather lengthy delay, during which she realized that she was still wearing her Yellow Knight disguise but had lost her mask and cowl at some point, she asked, "He knows about me, doesn't he?"

"Affirmative."

Trini sighed. On the one hand, she had wanted Jason to find out who the Yellow Knight was, in her selfish desire to be spared from that extra – and dangerous – obligation. But on the other hand, she had hoped for Kimberly's sake that he would never find out about it.

But now he knew and the whole point was moot. Slowly, she realized that if he was on his way back to the castle now, and if he knew the identity of the Yellow Knight, that meant he would be planning to deal with Kimberly. Once he was finished with Tommy, at least. And that meant he was going to blame Kimberly for putting Trini in danger, even though it had been Trini's choice to cooperate in the first place.

"He's going to kill her."

"That would not be beneficial -"

"Try telling that to Jason when he's angry."

Billy said nothing in response, so they went along in silence for a while. She did not realize she had been dozing until Billy asked if she would like to stop for the night.

"How much farther?"

"I do not think we are far from the city now. I have been recognizing landmarks for a while."

The thought of a warm, comfortable bed was alluring. Very alluring. "Let's keep going for a while, then."

"Of course," he said amenably. "You seemed fatigued, and I thought you would perhaps be more comfortable if we took a break."

"Usually this ring seems to give me energy, but now..." She glanced at the ring on her finger, with its big shining topaz, and sighed. "I don't think it's making much of a difference."

"Then perhaps taking it off might prove efficacious," Billy suggested.

It was worth a shot. Feeling weaker than she ever had, Trini slipped the ring off her finger... and promptly fell asleep.

 

 

"What was all that?" Angela asked, her voice low.

It took Zack a moment to answer. "Magic, I think."

This was not the conversation he had been hoping to have upon finding himself alone with Angela. He had felt an indescribable rush when fighting against Tommy, but Kimberly had looked so scarred afterward that he had been hoping for some sort of reassurance that he had really done the right thing.

"Magic," Angela murmured thoughtfully. "Never thought I'd meet a knight with magic powers, let alone get to watch him save a princess."

_You can be my damsel in distress any day._ Somehow he managed to avoid saying the first thing that popped into his head. "Crazy, isn't it?"

"It's a little overwhelming," she admitted. "How long are you going to... stay like that?"

Zack looked down at himself, at the shiny black armor. "You know, I have no idea. Kim... the Princess didn't really explain it to me, and I didn't think to ask."

"There were a few other things going on at the time," Angela said sympathetically. She actually paced around him, then, inspecting.

Zack wasn't sure how he felt about that. Nervous, definitely, but also pleased. Angela's independent streak typically had her playing hard to get. It wasn't often that she actually showed an interest in him like this.

"It's a good look for you, if a little intimidating," she observed.

"Thanks. I think."

She smiled at him. "A good knight _should _be intimidating, Zack."

That reminded him with a pang of Jason. He tried not to let it show, and Angela did not seem to notice, but it still hurt. He'd done a pretty good job of keeping it together so far, but he was starting to wonder how long that would last. He wasn't sure he was strong enough to help Kimberly get through this _and _deal with a killer knight on the loose.

"Zack... are you all right?"

He couldn't help it; he kissed her. Ordinarily he wouldn't have risked her wrath like that, but the timing had seemed so perfect. He needed some sort of affirmation that he was still alive, that he could get through this without letting everyone down, and she'd just looked so beautiful staring up at him, somewhat disheveled from the midnight trip to the castle, her eyes all big with concern.

She didn't hit him for it, or pull away or yell. In fact, he was rather pleased with the way she pressed herself against him and just let him kiss her. But when she moved to pull away he let her go without a fuss. He had learned through painful experience not to push his luck with her.

But it was definitely worth the effort, for moments like this when she let him past her guard. That kiss had been every bit as electrifying as he had hoped.

"I am now."

If he wasn't mistaken, that comment had brought a flush to her cheeks.

As they continued down the hall, he pretended not to notice when she slipped her hand into his, although he would have preferred to get rid of the armor first so he could feel her hand against his. They went on for a while in companionable silence. Zack wasn't even sure anymore where they were going or what they were supposed to be doing.

Angela kept glancing down between them, where their hands were linked. After a while she slowed down and then stopped, drawing their joined hands up so she could get a closer look.

Zack had the sudden feeling he didn't want to know what she was looking for.

"I've seen something like this before," she murmured.

It took him a bit to figure out what, exactly, she was talking about. On the middle finger of his right hand was a large silver ring, with Kimberly's onyx set into it. He hadn't even noticed it before. Then again, he had been more worried about Tommy trying to kill him at that point.

But he had to admit there was something almost familiar about the ring's design: the simple band with the large stone, and a small silver chain that snaked up to circle the wrist. There was enough slack in the chain that he thought he could get it off and take a closer look, which he did almost without thinking.

The moment the ring came off his finger, Zack's armor reverted back to normal. "Well," he said, stifling surprise and a sudden wave of fatigue, "that answers that question."

Somewhere a bell tolled the hour. Zack lost count after a few peals, and settled for 'late'. Although 'early' was probably a better word for it. "We should get you back home," he said gently. "Your parents won't be happy if they find out you snuck out tonight."

She laughed quietly. "They also won't be happy if anybody sees you prowling around the estate in the middle of the night."

She had a point. Her family had not been exactly welcoming of his intrusions in the past. But it didn't feel right to just send her off by herself.

"Come on. Let me walk you back, at least to the garden."

She shook her head, but he could tell she was going to give in. "Okay, fine," she decided at last. "You can walk me home. But if there's any trouble you have to come back in the morning and explain everything to my parents. If they find out about this, they aren't going to be happy with me."

At this point he was willing to take whatever he could get. "You've got yourself a deal."

 

 

Kimberly looked up slowly, her eyes dull, as the door to her chambers opened and Jason stepped inside. Her voice barely more than a whisper, she bade Aisha to go. The young woman nodded obediently, but her dark eyes fixed Jason in a fierce glare as she made her exit.

Well, he didn't much care at this point if she was angry or thought now was not the time for confrontation. He had already wasted more time than he would have liked getting a report of the night's events from the guards. Getting any information out of that bunch was time consuming at best, but at least he knew what had happened in his absence. Now he just wanted to get this out in the open before he keeled over from sheer exhaustion.

"You're alive," Kim said, her voice still quiet. "Zack told me you were dead."

"Well, so far as he knew, I was."

"I'm glad you're okay."

Did she really think he wasn't even happier than she was to find him still in one piece, after all that had happened in the past day? Rather than say something cruel, that he might come to regret, he muttered something noncommittal.

"What about -" She cut herself off mid-sentence.

"Trini?" he guessed. "She's alive. Or at least she was still hanging on the last time I saw her."

"Thank goodness," Kimberly breathed.

Jason supposed he could have left it at that. Or they could have discussed it later, like the calm, rational adults they were both supposed to be. But that option didn't suit his mood at all. He had been thwarted in all his attempts to defeat Tommy, and now he was more or less just spoiling for a fight.

"She could have _died _today, Kim. What were you thinking?" he demanded. Having finally found an outlet for his frustration, he found he could barely contain his fury. He had always known that the Princess had a tendency to be petty and illogical, but they had been good friends as children and he had thought she had a good heart under all that. Apparently he had been wrong. He thought uncharitably that she was every bit the spoiled, selfish brat so many people said she was.

Kimberly met his anger head-on, and with a great deal more spite. No doubt she was hopping mad from finding out she'd been wrong about Tommy. "Careful, Jason. You might give the impression that you actually care about her."

"At least I don't take advantage of her, or use her for my own benefit."

"Maybe not, but you'll string her along for years and then marry someone else just so you get to be King," she retorted.

"That's enough!" Something in the way he said it shut her up, and for that he was grateful. With Kimberly it was often difficult to get a word in edgewise. "I don't want to be King. I never _wanted_ to be King, Kimberly. At least not any more than any other boy wants to be the King when he grows up. But the others..." He gestured futilely. "You've seen them! Do you honestly think I can sit by and let someone like Bulk or Skull, who wants the crown and the power that goes with it but has never even bothered to learn the basic tenets of leadership, take the throne?"

Chastened, Kimberly only stared at him. Apparently she had not given him credit for thinking any of his actions through.

Jason sighed. "Do you really think I enjoy any of this? Never thinking about what I want, only about the greater good of everyone else in the kingdom? It's what I was born for, so I accept it, and I deal with it as best as I can. But it still sucks. You should know that better than anyone." He continued, more quietly, "So forgive me if I like spending time with Trini, but there aren't many people who don't have any expectations or make any demands."

The hurt look on her face told him that Kimberly felt much the same way he did about Trini. While there was still a part of him that wanted to cause her additional pain in return for the pain and fear her actions had brought upon him today, much of his anger was already spent.

"Jason... I'm sorry." He hadn't been expecting her to say that, and it took him aback. "I never intended for any of this to happen. I didn't think..."

Of course she hadn't thought. She might be a Princess, but Kimberly was guided by her heart more than her mind.

"I know you didn't, but you should have realized that something like this _could_ happen," he pointed out.

"You're one to talk." She said it quietly, but he heard anyway. He realized that confronting her when he was already angry had been a bad idea. She knew better than just about anyone else how to needle his temper.

"I should go. This is getting us nowhere."

"I'm sorry!" she repeated miserably as he turned to leave. If only he could forgive her so easily.

He might have calmed down a lot, but he still couldn't resist one last parting shot: "I just want to ask you one last question. I'm curious: would marrying me really be so awful that it's worth risking the lives of your closest friends just to avoid it?"

Kimberly stifled a sob; Jason turned and left without waiting for a response. His temper had demanded that he ask the question, but he didn't really want to hear the answer. Right now he just wanted to go back to his rooms and pass out, and deal with this mess later. Or better yet, not at all.

Aisha intercepted him as he stepped outside and closed - or rather, slammed - the door behind him.

"I just came from the healers' quarter," she said quietly. "Trini and Billy are back. I'll wait to tell Kimberly if you want to go see them first."

He managed to thank her without sounding too irate, and decided that sleep could wait a few more minutes. He wanted to see for himself that his friends had returned safe and sound.

He made his way down to the healers' quarter, stopping at his chambers first to ditch his armor in favor of something less uncomfortable. By the time he arrived at his destination, any activity had died down. The healers on duty for the night, two young women, seemed to know exactly who he had come to see and guided him quietly to a cubbyhole at the back of the infirmary.

Behind a curtain there was a very tiny room, most of which was occupied by a small cot. Trini was tucked into the bed, apparently already asleep. She looked more peaceful than he had seen her in a long time.

As he took a seat on the small bench beside the cot, he wasn't sure whether he should disturb her or not. But he couldn't seem to help himself. "Trini."

At first he thought she might be sleeping too deeply to have heard him, but after a moment she rolled over to face him and opened her eyes. As he looked into those wide, dark eyes, he felt equal parts relieved and guilty. Relieved, because she was alive. Guilty, because he hadn't been able to save her from this. And, if he had to admit it, because he thought he might have been just a bit too harsh with Kimberly earlier. But he did not want to burden Trini with that; if he still felt he had been too harsh in the morning, he decided he would track the Princess down and apologize for his actions.

"Did I wake you?"

She nodded.

He grimaced. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

"You're all right?" She had seemed so fragile earlier. He could hardly believe she was really here now; he had the inexplicable urge to reach over and touch her, just to make sure she was really lying there in front of him, and not just some figment of his imagination.

"Yeah." She sighed. "They want me to stay here overnight to make sure, but yes, I'm fine."

The healers had told him much the same thing, but it was somehow better to hear it from her. He asked her about Billy, too, and again she told him pretty much exactly what the healers had - that he'd been sent back to his own chambers with a sleeping draught to get him through the night. Jason knew he ought to leave her to her rest, but there was one more thing he really wanted to know about.

"So," he began. "Magic, huh?"

She didn't quite flinch, even though she looked clearly unhappy about his choice of topic. But she did not try to deny it or shy away from it. "Yes."

"When did that happen?"

"It was an accident."

When she made no move to elaborate, he gave her a questioning look. He was too tired for vague, evasive responses. He wanted answers. "I hate to ask, but how does magic happen by 'accident'?"

"I don't know," she said miserably. "I wasn't there when it happened. All I know is I found Kimberly unconscious on the floor of the royal treasure room. This stone was next to her, and when I picked it up, it did... this." He was a bit perplexed to see that she was holding that distinctive topaz ring in the palm of her hand, as if to show it to him. There was a thin gold chain attached to it that he had not noticed before, which reached up to circle her wrist, with no visible means of removing it.

"So wait, it was just a stone at first?" He hadn't meant to probe too deeply, or keep her up too much longer, but she had piqued his curiosity.

She nodded. "And when I picked it up, it... changed. And now, whenever I put it on, it will change my appearance to whatever I want. I think... it protects me, too. Apparently it can do all sorts of things." She sighed. "I don't know how or why it works, though, and with Zordon missing and everything on magic gone from the archives, I don't even know where to start looking to find out."

"If there's any way I can help, you know I will."

"I don't think I'll have time to worry about that for a while," she said. "Kimberly's going to be a wreck after all of this."

He decided it would be in his best interests not to tell her that he had probably not helped with that. At all. He would tell her later. When she had rested. Although maybe it would be better to tell her now, when she was under orders for bed rest and possibly too weak to properly retaliate.

He realized with a small smile that she had made the decision for him. Her head had drooped and her eyes had gone closed. Her even breathing told him she had drifted off to sleep.

Just as he was thinking he should just sneak out while she was resting, she shook herself out of it. "Sorry about that."

"I should let you rest. I've taken up enough of your time already." And if he kept it up, he was reasonably certain the healers would come and drag him away so she could have some peace and quiet. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded slowly. "I'm not hurt, just really tired. I think this thing used up all my energy earlier, when we were fighting that... thing, and then when we fell in the river."

"The ring used up your energy?"

"As Billy would say, it's a theory."

He must have looked quite perplexed, because her expression was one of amusement.

"I mean, how do I explain this?" she murmured. "When we fell in the river, it felt _different_. Like this thing was going to do whatever it took to make sure I survived, even if it meant I had no energy left afterward. And since I couldn't just leave you to drown, I think I may have overdone it a bit."

"So what you're saying is..."

"I think this ring is the reason why we're both still alive right now."

"If that's true, then I owe my life to it – and you."

She frowned. "Jason, you don't owe me anything. You made sure Billy got me home safe. That makes us even."

He couldn't resist teasing her a little. "If that's what you want to believe..."

"Jason," she scolded.

"Just don't do anything that stupid again," he told her, trying to sound forceful rather than worried. As if he could tell her what to do. "I'm going to need you."

"I can't make any promises, Jase."

"Well, I'll need someone to keep me from losing my mind if I have to marry Kimberly. And you're the best person I know for the job."

"Then I promise not to do anything exceptionally stupid," she said solemnly, "without telling you first."


	16. Destiny

If there was one thing Tommy Oliver truly disliked, it was feeling trapped. And that was exactly how he felt now, chained as he was to Rita's tower in the mountains. Sure, there was no real chain, and she had given him more or less free rein to explore the tower and the lands around it, but the ultimate truth was that he could not leave until she allowed it. And although he had enjoyed his time here at first, after nearly a month of waiting he was growing restless.

Rita had kept herself busy enough during that time. She had flitted to and from her scrying pool, plotted her schemes, and crafted new armor and weapons for him, forged in darkness and enchanted by even more powerful magic than before. She had completed her task only just last night, crowing her success at the stroke of midnight. But she had not involved Tommy in this process at all, and he felt very little attachment to this latest victory.

In fact, he wasn't sure he really thought it was a victory at all.

And so he had spent his morning wandering discontentedly and mulling over the turns his life had taken lately. He had chosen to walk one of the few trails that took him out of sight of the tower. Normally that helped, but today it had not improved his mood very much. He had always been more at home in the wilderness than he was indoors or around other people, but the longer he was stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with nothing much to do, the less interested he became in exploring his striking surroundings.

For all that it was a magic tower, Rita's abode was awfully boring. Or at least, it was for a knight who had no interest in looking at petty magical artifacts or paging through moldy old books. And although he had initially felt that Rita's scrying pool, which enabled her to spy on anyone, anywhere, might provide some interesting images if used for his purposes rather than hers, she had quickly squashed that idea by chasing him from the room where the pool was located. After that he had grudgingly assumed that she was the only one in the tower that was allowed to spy on other people.

Of course, as she had angrily pointed out, that had still left him with the rest of the tower to explore. But while it was much larger than it first appeared, he could only stand exploring so many dusty rooms before boredom inevitably overwhelmed him.

So that had left him with little to do but prowl around the tower's exterior and the mountain trails nearby for days on end. He usually felt somewhat better outside, where the air was crisp and clear and he had plenty of room for hiking, exploring, and training. But not today. Today he could not seem to forget that this was only a false freedom: he could wander as he pleased, but without ready access to supplies or any real idea of where he was, he couldn't travel far.

He was pretty sure Rita had planned it that way, and the knowledge rankled. Rita's most annoying habit by far was that she always thought she knew better than everyone else. Even when she didn't. That was the real reason why she had trapped him here and given him this mere semblance of liberty. Because she thought it was the only way to keep him from messing up any more of her precious plans. It might have irritated him less if he had actually messed up any of her plans to begin with.

It was true, he had to admit, that their bid for Kimberly's crown had failed in the end, but they would never even have had the chance to fail if not for him. But it was not his fault that things had gone wrong. In fact, everything had gone smoothly until he started to obey Rita's plans to the letter. And even then, it had been her plan and her monster that had failed, not him.

He had wanted Jason Scott dead just as much as anyone. It wasn't as if he had tried to spare that self-righteous jerk. It had just sort of happened.

He was not sure, now, if he regretted that or not. On the one hand, it meant that the biggest thorn in his side was still out there, but on the other it meant that they would get a chance to battle again, and soon. With his new armor and weapons completed, Rita would be eager for him to test them out against a real opponent. And after his disastrous fight with Zack, everyone at the castle would be on high alert and pushing for the wedding between Jason and Kimberly to take place as quickly as possible.

Darkness kindled like a flame in his heart at the thought of that wedding. At least in that regard Rita shared some of his urgency, if for entirely different reasons. Reasons Tommy found he ultimately cared very little about. Whatever plans she was concocting, whatever ends she had in mind, his own course was increasingly clear to him. Rita could have her crown or her kingdom or whatever it was she wanted. But he could not simply stand by and allow Jason Scott to have Kimberly Hart.

Rita's tower rose into view on his left as he walked, half lost in his dark thoughts. His steps slowed and his thoughts began to focus on something entirely more pleasant than his current situation. Kimberly...

He was starting to spend an alarming amount of time thinking about her. At first he had told himself that it was because he was bored and Rita had given him nothing else to do, but the reality was that he missed her. He missed that fiery personality, always quick to meet him with a witty response or a flirtatious look. And, too, he missed just looking at her, getting to be in her presence.

He hadn't expected to feel this way, but he did.

It was not something Rita would have approved of, so he simply didn't tell her. She could spy on him all she wanted, but she couldn't be bothered to read his mind these days, and she hadn't exactly spoken out against his silly little fantasies. He chose to take that as a sign that he would not be punished for continuing to spend his time thinking about the enemy Princess.

He made his way up the last of the path and back over to the tower, letting his thoughts fly free as he went. He had just reached the doorway and turned to go in when movement along one of the other approaching paths caught his attention: a figure wrapped in a voluminous cloak was heading toward the tower. The garment made it impossible to tell who - or, more likely, what - it was, but it was moving almost impossibly quickly. Tommy, fearing that his daydreaming had left him oblivious to the approach of an enemy, braced himself for impending battle.

But Rita chose that exact moment to fling the tower door open and step out, rapping him over the head with her magic wand as she went.

"Enough, you idiot," she scolded, as if she had not just nearly flattened him with the door or hit him with her wand. "This is no intruder, it's a very important guest!" Turning back to the cloaked figure, which was now close enough to address, Rita beamed in delight. "Welcome back, Scorpina!"

The woman came to a halt just before them, throwing the hood of her cloak back from her face before executing a neat bow. Even with her head lowered Tommy could see that she was devastatingly beautiful, but the wicked grin that crossed her face made her seem more disconcerting than attractive. And her feral expression wasn't the worst part. It was the ghostly face that stared back at him from the enormous white crystal on the chain around her neck.

He could only watch in confusion, suppressing a strange and sudden sense of horror, as Rita took the crystal from Scorpina and crooned. "Ah, Zordon! It's so nice to meet face-to-face again after all this time. And you're just in time to watch my Green Knight crash the royal wedding!"

 

 

Kimberly sat in front of the large mirror – in her own chambers, as repairs had been finished just a few days ago – and wondered how her dreams of a perfect wedding day had come to this. In just a few hours she would be wed to a man she did not love, a man who had spent the last month trying not to actively despise her.

She herself had spent that month filling her time with every meeting and court session, every lesson and otherwise mind-numbing task she could possibly squeeze in, just to keep her mind off of the reality that she would soon find herself married to Jason Scott. It hadn't worked as well as she had hoped. Instead of leading her to accept her fate... she had ended up merely sullen and exhausted, and every bit as heartsick as the night of Tommy's betrayal.

That was not exactly how she had hoped to look and feel on her wedding day. She sighed and ran her comb morosely through her hair. She had curled it, and now to pass the time she took tiny white flowers from a small vase on her vanity and wove them in among the strands. Aside from the near-silent rustle of her hair as she worked, her chambers were empty and silent. She could almost fool herself into believing that today was just another ordinary day.

It had taken some doing to get rid of the simpering noblewomen who wanted to help her prepare for the wedding. She had hoped to find solace in the silence, after the unexpected and unwanted bustle first thing in the morning, but now she was beginning to regret that decision. In the peace and quiet, she found herself stalling. If she delayed for much longer, she would be in trouble.

Even that might not have been enough to rouse her, but for the sudden sound of activity at her door. Outside, someone hurried over and, finding that the large double doors were locked tight, groaned. "Kimberly, let me in."

Kimberly reminded herself that it was rude to give orders to a Princess, and chose not to respond. Instead, she scrutinized her reflection in the mirror. She forced a smile; the face that looked back at her was pristine, perfectly made up. Except for the eyes, which looked inexplicably sad... and then flashed with irritation.

"Come on, Kim. Either come out or let me in. We don't have time for this."

Suddenly irate, she stormed over, released the lock, and yanked the door open to glower at the young woman outside. "Why do you never have a key?"

Trini met her gaze placidly and said, "I don't carry a key with me because you never used to lock your door."

Kimberly ushered Trini in, closing and locking the door behind her. "Well, you should have known I would lock it today," she said with an exaggerated sigh. "Everyone and their mother wants to help me do my hair and makeup, or get into my dress, or whatever. As if I don't know what I'm doing!"

Trini chuckled. "Well, they're getting impatient for the ceremony to start. Everyone's waiting on you. Do you mind if I help you get ready?"

Returning to her place in front of the mirror, Kimberly smiled again and this time it looked a bit more genuine. "No," she admitted. "I taught you everything you know. You wouldn't mess up my wedding day."

"Since it looks like you've already taken care of your hair and makeup, let's get you into that dress," Trini suggested.

Kimberly nodded even though she felt anything but confident about this. As Trini went to the large wardrobe to retrieve the dress, apprehension blossomed in the Princess's heart and nausea rose in her gut. This was it. If she put that dress on, it was as if everything would suddenly become real.

That dress... It was as close to perfection as any human tailor could produce. The design was like something out of a dream, and only the best materials had been used in its creation. Kimberly might not be able to stop the wedding from happening, but this much she could control. If she was going to be forced to marry, she was going to do it in style.

For a fleeting moment, she entertained the idea of putting Trini into the wedding gown and sending her off to marry Jason instead, but she knew Trini would never go for it. It was a tempting, if childish, solution to the problem, and she knew even as she thought of it that it would never come to pass. Trini lived and breathed honor, and hated deception. And after what had happened the last time she pushed Trini into doing something against her better judgment, Kimberly was nervous about doing it again. Trini was her closest friend. She had no idea what she would do if she lost her.

There were tears in her eyes by the time Trini returned with the dress, which was still wrapped in plain, undyed fabric to protect it.

Just great. She was going to cry and ruin her makeup, and then she would have to start all over again.

"Kimberly, what's wrong?"

"I don't know if I can do this."

"If anyone can, it's you."

"I wish it could be that easy."

Trini carefully set the dress down, draping it across a nearby chair, and came over to settle herself on the floor beside Kimberly. She took the Princess's hands in her own and looked her straight in the eye. "Are you going to tell me what's really wrong?"

Only _everything_.

Kimberly considered simply not answering, but she knew Trini wouldn't give up until she got to the truth. She easily had a dozen reasons to feel unhappy, but she settled for the one that was most prominent at the moment.

"I'm getting married... I always thought my mother would be with me on this day," she confided. Her empty chambers, and now the dress she and her mother had so carefully planned together, only served to remind her of all she had lost. Her parents, her freedom to make her own decisions, and more recently the man she had come to care for, even to love.

Trini said all the right soothing things in response, but Kimberly barely heard. She had been so stupid, thinking that she if could not have her parents with her on her wedding day, she might instead be permitted to walk down that aisle to stand beside a man she loved, rather than the man politics had chosen for her. She wished it was Tommy waiting for her, rather than Jason. Tommy...

The thought of him made her heart constrict painfully in her chest, even now, after a month had passed since she last saw him. Since he tried to kill Jason and Trini, and take the crown by force. All of that... and her feelings were unchanged. Or at least, she thought they were.

_How much of what I feel for him is real, and how much of it is from him manipulating me? _she wondered dully. What she felt for Tommy certainly seemed real enough. And painful.

She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't seem to help it. Especially on today, of all days. Especially when Trini was asking what was wrong. She wanted very much to be honest. Too bad it wouldn't do her any good.

"Kim..." Trini said after a while, her voice stern and soothing at the same time.

That was Trini: ever practical, wanting to be sympathetic but knowing their time was running out. They would soon be overdue for the ceremony. There was no more time for moping or sentimentality. She could do that later. Still... "I can't believe I'm going to marry Jason."

Trini smiled gently. "I think if you actually gave him a chance, you wouldn't be so horrified by the idea of marrying him."

Easy for her to say. "Are you sure you're not in love with him?"

Trini's smile turned into a frown. They had discussed this many times over the past few weeks, and she obviously did not feel like going over it again. "Kimberly, this is not the time to be worrying about -"

"Because if you want him, I'd really rather you have him than me."

One look from Trini silenced her quite effectively. She really needed to learn how to glare like that. It would no doubt come in handy in the future, when she had to deal with Jason or other equally annoying members of her court.

"Okay, okay. I can take a hint," she grumbled. "If I have to."

"Good," Trini said with forced cheerfulness. Before Kimberly could get another word in, Trini went after the dress again, and this time there would be no going back.

With practiced ease, Trini coaxed Kimberly out of her robe and dressing gown and began the rather complicated process of getting her into her wedding dress. The Princess might have chased all the other would-be helpers from her chambers long ago, but she was somewhat relieved to have Trini's assistance now. The dress was beautiful, of undeniable quality and masterfully tailored, but it was not easy to get into.

When Trini had finished, even Kimberly had to admit that she looked like the perfect bride. If only she could feel like it, too.

"It's gorgeous, Kim," Trini murmured appreciatively. "You look beautiful."

Kimberly inspected herself in the mirror. She had wanted a pink dress, but tradition dictated she wear the colors of her family. At least white and red together came _close_ to pink, she supposed. And the dress was beautiful, all soft lines and fine fabric, even if she felt it would have been much more beautiful with someone else wearing it.

"Yes, it's beautiful," she agreed, knowing she was sulking.

"Cheer up," Trini urged. "Maybe it won't be as bad as you think. And you don't want the court to say you looked grumpy on your wedding day."

"Right." It came out far harsher than she had intended, and she immediately regretted saying it. "I'm sorry. None of this is your fault. I shouldn't snap at you like that when you're only trying to help."

"It's okay. I understand," Trini said. It did not escape Kimberly's notice that, despite her kind words, Trini was now staring at the floor and refusing to meet her gaze. "I only wish things could have worked out the way you hoped they would."

Kimberly bit back another sigh and complaint. Such things were unbecoming of a Princess and besides, there had been a knock at the door. Trini rose unbidden and went to answer it. While she conversed with the overbearing middle-aged woman on the other side, Kimberly struggled for composure.

After a few moments of hushed conversation, Trini gently closed the door and returned to Kimberly's side, saying, "We don't have any more time. Can you do this?"

_No._

"...Yes."

"Good." And with that, Trini seized the veil from its place in Kimberly's wardrobe. The netting was so fine as to be almost transparent, but when it was placed upon the Princess's head there was so much of it that it seemed to froth and foam around her face and down her back. Trini secured it in place with a few deftly positioned pins and a simple silver tiara.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Kimberly felt like she might die then and there. This was it; she was going to her doom. Trini caught her horrified expression and smiled reassuringly. "You'll do just fine. Maybe you don't think so, but I believe in you."

She reminded herself that Trini was only trying to help. "Let's just get this over with."

Trini led the way out of Kimberly's chambers, and it was all Kimberly could do not to cling to her friend for support. At the same time, she felt that Trini's strong grip on her arm was all that kept her from showing the court the full depth of her displeasure - by running away.

The two young women were the only people in sight. Their footfalls reverberated in the quiet, empty hall as they made their way toward the throne room, a steady counterpoint to Kimberly's wildly racing thoughts.

She wanted to believe that this could not be happening, that she might still find a way to escape her destiny, but with each step she took it grew more and more difficult to deceive herself. There was no way out. If there was, she couldn't see it.

_I can be strong_, she thought. _I can do this. I am the Princess. I was born for this._

But nothing she could say or think could ease her trepidation or slow the frantic pounding of her heart.

They reached the entrance to the throne room almost before she knew it, and definitely before she was ready. The enormous doors stood open, allowing the sounds of the crowd massed within to drift out. Nervousness fluttered in Kimberly's belly. They paused for a moment just out of sight of those within the throne room, but a moment was all Trini would allow her.

"Good luck," she murmured, after Kimberly's allotted moment had passed. And with that she slipped away, heading toward one of the discreet servants' doors that led into the throne room. Kimberly found herself suddenly on her own.

A few more steps and she stood, alone, on the threshold. The doors, opened wide, revealed the throne room in all its wedding-day splendor and the crowd in its finery. Everyone who was anyone in the kingdom was in attendance, and they were all of them watching her, hundreds of eyes staring her down as she faced the worst torment of her life.

_I can't do this!_ she thought in a sudden panic. She wanted to run away, or curl up in a miserable ball and cry, or do anything but walk through that room to where Jason - and her destiny - was waiting for her.

_But I have to._

Fighting off the last of her panic, Kimberly squared her shoulders and stepped forward.

 

 

Emerging from a burst of smoke so green it was nearly black, Tommy decided he would never adjust to astral travel. Or whatever it was Rita had done to transport him instantaneously from one place to another. It was intensely jarring to find himself in Rita's musty old tower one moment and standing in the vast entry hall of Kimberly's castle the next.

He shook off the last of his disorientation and started walking. It felt good to be back in action; he seemed to have completely recovered his sense of purpose, and it propelled him forward now. With the moment of the final conflict nearly at hand, his month-long wait seemed to matter less and less. What mattered now was that he get to the throne room and put a stop to the royal wedding.

The very thought of it made his blood boil. Princess Kimberly and Jason Scott...

Thankfully, no one was around to witness his sudden and rather strange entrance, and therefore there was no one to get in his way. Everyone would be near the throne room right now, trying to catch a glimpse of the wedding.

If Tommy had his way, they would see a whole lot more than that.

His steps echoed ominously in the silence. The entry to the throne room loomed before him. People thronged outside that doorway, jockeying for position and trying for the best vantage point. As he approached, Tommy could sense unease ripple through the crowd. They might not know who he was, but they definitely could tell he was not someone to be trifled with.

Of their own accord the onlookers stepped back to form a makeshift aisle. He strode past them and into the throne room without giving any of them a second glance. They were insignificant.

Attendance at the wedding was strictly by invitation only. Tommy had no such invitation, not that it mattered.

No one raised a hand to stop him until he was nearly halfway to the throne, and by then it was too late. Murmurs raced through the room, which was packed with members of the court and the most elite of the kingdom's noble families. Perversely pleased by their fearful attention, Tommy came to a stop. Hardly caring that he was interrupting the venerable old priest who was officiating the ceremony, he called out, "Jason Scott, I challenge you to a duel. For the Princess. To the death."

Pandemonium erupted through the room before he had even finished issuing his challenge. What had begun as mere whispers became a dull roar. Some of the spectators tried to flee the room, others were determined to stand their ground.

Jason's voice rose above the din, urging those knights and guardsmen present to get all of the innocent bystanders to safety as quickly as possible. People flooded past Tommy, watching him warily and giving him a wide berth as they went.

He was aware of their passing, but he had eyes for one thing and one thing only, and that was Kimberly. She stood on the dais before the throne, resplendent in a gown of white silk and blood red velvet, the colors of her family, of kingship and power. The very sight of her was arresting. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.

_Take her,_ Rita urged, her voice almost seductive as it echoed in his head. _She can be yours. I don't care what you do with her. I just want the crown!_

It was tempting. Very tempting. But a tiny voice inside him whispered a protest. _"But she belongs _here_."_

By now the throne room had emptied considerably. A handful of guards still ringed the perimeter, but all that stood between Tommy and Kimberly was Jason. Jason and his annoying friends, Tommy amended as Trini and Zack came to stand beside their leader.

Tommy drew his sword, the motion natural and almost lazy. The magic blade seemed to bleed darkness into the room. "So, Jason, what'll it be? Do you accept my challenge?"

"Zack, Trini," Jason said, his tone indicating that this order was not to be ignored, "get the Princess out of here. _Now._"

"No!"

Tommy suppressed a smile. He couldn't have asked for a more forceful protest from Kimberly. And although he had been mildly worried that she would prove to be a dangerous distraction, if Jason wanted her gone, he wanted her here.

Trini glanced at Kimberly, but made no move to obey Jason's order. Zack, on the other hand, seemed perfectly willing to disobey his Princess if he thought it was for her own safety. It was intensely satisfying, and almost amusing, to watch Kimberly shy away from her own chosen knight. Even after a month apart, with the weight of exposed betrayal between them, it was plain to see that Tommy still had a hold over her.

And although he was unwilling to admit it, that bond went both ways. Tommy's anger flared the moment Zack laid a hand on Kimberly to remove her from the room by force, if need be. "Sorry, Zack," he spat out, "I think your Princess wants to see this."

In addition to his new armor, Rita had provided him with the knowledge of several magic spells that might come in handy. He used one of them now. A single word, spoken in a language long forgotten, and green energy rose up to envelope the knight and fling him away from the Princess. Zack hit the back wall of the throne room with a satisfying thud. At the moment of impact, the green energy changed, forming chains that bound him to the wall, where he couldn't cause any more trouble... if he was even still conscious.

While Kimberly raced over to see if Zack was okay, Tommy fought past a stab of jealousy - how could she be worried about someone like Zack, when _he _had come all this way to fight for her? - and turned his attention to the next threat: Jason and Trini.

He knew almost without thinking about it that he would take care of Trini first. He wanted no interference when he fought Jason. In her white maiden's dress, she didn't look very threatening, but Tommy's assessment changed a moment later when she conjured a sword out of empty air. A sorceress... he hadn't suspected, but he really should have known. She might try to hide it, but she was a meddler.

In the end, it didn't matter. Whatever she had just done to create that sword, he knew that her magic could not be as powerful as Rita's, and there was no way she could beat him in single combat. But she did not intend to wield that sword herself; instead, she gave it over to Jason.

How touching. Despite the animosity he felt toward her, Tommy could not quite suppress a smile when she stepped back, leaving Jason to face him alone.

For a moment no one moved. The two knights simply stared each other down. The look in Jason's eyes was murderous; Tommy met his gaze evenly, feeling only a growing anticipation in response. What was to come next would be the deciding battle. Only one of them would walk away from this. And that was just the way Tommy wanted it. He would take great pleasure in destroying Jason Scott.

"Are you ready to die, Jason?" he asked, his voice an almost unfamiliar snarl.

Goaded into action at last, Jason drew his sword, tossing the fine yellow leather sheath aside. No longer needed, it disappeared as soon as it touched the ground. "You couldn't kill me last time," he retorted. "What makes you think you'll do better this time?"

He would do better because this time it was up to him to make the killing blow. He wasn't relying on some bone-headed plan or ridiculous monster to do his dirty work. This time he would see it done with his own blade.

He told Jason none of these things. Instead, he decided that the time for pleasantries was past and surged forward. Jason merely knocked his first strike harmlessly aside and gave ground rather than risk a counterattack just yet. Without armor or shield, Jason wouldn't be careless. He would take his opponent's measure before mounting an offensive. And he certainly wouldn't leave himself open to attack or try anything that might make him vulnerable. He would be relying on speed and agility to keep himself alive long enough for Tommy to tire or make a mistake.

Too bad he would be dead before it ever came to that.

The two knights clashed again and again. Their blades, dark and light respectively, flashed and wove in a deadly dance of thrusts, strikes, parries, and ripostes. Jason's sword was close to perfect: lightweight and strong. After all, it was borne of magic. But so was Tommy's sword. And his had been forged by stronger magic. _His_ sword was nothing less than perfect. In a battle of blades, he should have been the clear victor. He was not.

Tommy's armor gave him a real advantage, but Jason was every bit his equal as a warrior. And while it was exhilarating to fight Jason this way, one on one, Tommy soon began to feel that they were getting nowhere. Every time he thought he had an opening, Jason would simply skip out of the way and they would start all over again.

It wasn't a very pretty strategy, but it was effective. And it was beginning to try Tommy's patience. He longed for a real conflict, and this was not it. "Is this all you've got?" he demanded.

Jason did not bother to respond, but Tommy became aware almost immediately of a growing tension in his opponent. He might have managed to remain silent, for now, but it was obvious that Tommy's comment was getting to him. Jason was a proud man, and did not take kindly to insults. At least not when they came from one he considered a real threat.

That pride, Tommy knew, would be the key to his victory. It was the one major crack in Jason's armor, and all he had to do was exploit it. At this point, it wouldn't even be that difficult.

"This is pathetic," he went on, glowering at Jason past their crossed swords. "A waste of my time. You're lucky Kimberly's worth this farce."

"Shut up," Jason grunted, lashing out at last. With a tremendous show of strength that even momentarily surprised Tommy, he pushed the other knight back by main force and began his own onslaught in an effort to gain control of the fight.

Tommy kept an eye on Trini, half expecting her to interfere in some way, but this was what he had been waiting for. Jason had been angry before. Now that he had begun to descend into rage, he would start to make mistakes. And as soon as he did, the battle would be over.

Trini realized it a second after Tommy did. "Jason, don't listen to him! He's just trying to make you angry so you'll make a mistake!"

"You stay out of this," Tommy snapped. "I'll deal with you in a minute."

He was almost too slow to block Jason's next attack, and that worried him. This had gone on long enough. In the past few moments the duel had shifted from thrilling to tedious. He had not even managed to draw blood yet, and Trini's poorly timed interjection meant that now there was very little chance that Jason would rise to Tommy's bait. He would have to find another way to end this.

_Trust in the tools I've given you, my Green Knight,_ Rita cooed in his head. Her random interjections were an unnecessary distraction; Tommy wished she would just shut up and let him fight. If she was aware of what he was thinking, she gave no sign of it. _Let my magic sword help you._

Grudgingly, and against his better judgment, he decided to give her way a chance. The hilt of his sword was carved in the shape of a demon; the blade emerged from its open mouth, its extended arms formed a claw-tipped guard, and the pommel was, in fact, the creature's wickedly barbed tail. Tommy got the sense now that it was no mere decoration, but a living beast. And it wanted to help him.

He wondered if it could, if Rita could have somehow created a living sword, or if it was all in his head. He did not have to wonder for long.

The next time he blocked, catching Jason's blade awkwardly against the guard, it _moved_. The claw-shaped quillions shifted like living fingers to grip the blade of Jason's sword and pin it in place. He twisted his sword, giving a hard jerk that yanked the sword right out of Jason's hands. As he watched his opponent's weapon fly to the ground, it occurred to Tommy that that little trick had been a very unfair move.

But what should that matter? He was about to claim his victory.

Weaponless, but unflinching to the bitter end, Jason stared him down.

Without really knowing why, Tommy hesitated. In his mind, he could hear Rita urging him on: _Yes, kill him. Finish what you didn't before!_

He wanted to obey, or thought he did. But even so his gaze flicked to one side when Kimberly called out his name, trying to reason with him, to bargain for Jason's life. Kimberly...

It was Kimberly's presence that weakened whatever hold Rita had over him, restoring a small measure of his free will. Slowly, realization dawned on him. He was not beholden to Rita out of any real loyalty, but because she had done something to him to force his cooperation. She was a sorceress, after all...

He shook himself free of this strange inner conflict, but it was already too late. He had taken too long. In his moment of distraction, he had allowed Trini to help Jason retrieve his sword and this time Tommy knew there would be no mercy.

He was no longer certain that was a good thing.

He was no longer certain what he was fighting for.

This time when their blades clashed, Tommy was purely on the defensive. Jason was no fool. He saw that Tommy was well and truly shaken, and pushed his advantage accordingly. This time, Jason's attacks came swiftly, wildly, seeking - and finding - the gaps in Tommy's guard. If he had not been wearing enchanted armor, he would have been seriously, if not mortally, wounded in a matter of seconds.

Reeling from the sudden shift, and all too aware that if he did not turn this around he would die, Tommy fought more desperately than ever before in his life. If the stakes had not been so high, he might have seen humor in it: now that he wasn't sure he really wanted to kill Jason, Jason was determined to end his life instead.

_Don't ask questions! Just fight him, you idiot!_ Rita's voice echoed painfully in his skull.

"Shut up. Let me handle this," he muttered back, not realizing he had spoken aloud rather than mentally.

If Jason heard, he did not let it show. His grim expression seemed set in stone.

Tommy willed himself toward the same sense of purpose. Whether or not he had been aware of what he was doing, he had pledged himself to this. He had thrown his lot in with Rita and until now he had put her desires above his own. He had challenged Jason knowing that he would win this duel or he would die, and now he would have to live with that decision... or die trying. For a moment it worked, and the calm acceptance of impending, inevitable death suffused him.

And Kimberly tore it all away with a single plea: "Please, stop this."

He could only stare at her, uncomprehending. Something deep inside him had cracked at the sound of her voice, and that crack was spreading, creating fissures that reached to the very depths of his soul. Fissures of light, that chased the darkness away. Rita's howl of fury echoed in his head... and faded into nothingness.

The magic that had given him so much power withdrew, or was forced out of him, taking the last of his strength with it as it disappeared. His sword and armor vanished as if they had never existed, and although he still wore his gambeson and the other padding that went under his armor, he knew that would provide little protection against Jason. He had time to comprehend this, and to wonder what in the world had just happened to him, before his knees buckled; too late he saw Jason poised to strike the final blow.

That moment of horrified recognition seemed to stretch out to infinity. Bereft of his power, without the armor and weapons Rita had bestowed upon him, Tommy knew there was no hope for escape. Rita's spell was broken. He was going to die.

"Stop!" The sudden outburst from Kimberly tore that frozen moment asunder and time resumed its normal course. Tommy crumpled. Jason struck. Pain tore through him, and Tommy was certain he'd just been mortally wounded.

"Tommy!" Kimberly screamed his name and fairly flew to his side. She met him halfway as he collapsed, catching him before he could hit the floor, using her own body to shield him from Jason's fury as they tumbled to the ground.

"Kimberly," he murmured, awestruck at finding that they were both still alive. As the life flowed out of him and darkness rushed in to take its place, he felt as if he were seeing her clearly for the very first time. At least if this was going to be his end, he'd die in her arms.

His last impressions as he lost consciousness were of tearful brown eyes, the sweet sound of Kimberly's voice as she whispered his name... and little white flowers in mahogany hair.


	17. At Odds

For a horrified moment, Jason thought he had managed to catch Kimberly with his blade when she threw herself between him and Tommy during their duel. But although her fancy wedding dress was most likely ruined from the tumble she had taken, it quickly became obvious that she was alive and unhurt.

"Tommy," she murmured over and over again, clinging to the fallen knight. "Please, you can't die!"

Jason watched this, feeling somewhat numb inside. He was no longer sure what to think. He had let himself be convinced that this wedding was a good idea, the right thing to do in spite of his misgivings, and it had nearly gotten him killed twice now. He had felt such overwhelming hatred for Tommy Oliver, but now it seemed as if something had completely and inexplicably changed within the other knight. Magic had aided, and then deserted, him. Jason wondered if it had controlled him, too. He wondered if it was really Tommy he should hate.

The darkness within Tommy had vanished in the blink of an eye, but that could have been a ploy to get close to Kimberly or escape the duel. Jason personally doubted that, but knew he could not afford to trust Tommy just yet. Only time would tell if this change was permanent or just another trick.

"Somebody get a healer," Kimberly said, her voice nearly cracking. No one moved. Zack had been injured, Kimberly nearly kidnapped, and Jason put through the fight of his life, and Kimberly was worried about Tommy, the one who had instigated it all.

It took every ounce of restraint he had in him, but Jason added, "You heard the Princess."

Two of the remaining guards took off at a run. In their wake, a few people began to trickle back into the throne room. Billy was among the first, along with Rocky, Aisha, and Adam.

"Is everyone all right?" Rocky asked.

Jason hesitated.

"Zack and Tommy are hurt," Trini supplied.

The newcomers looked surprised to hear that Tommy was merely 'hurt'. Then again, duels to the death seldom left both participants alive.

"Something weird happened while we were fighting," Jason told them. He did not tell them that he might have been angry enough to kill Tommy anyway, had Kimberly not intervened. "I'll tell you about it later."

Recognizing that this last comment was directed at him, Billy nodded.

From behind them, toward the rear of the room, Zack groaned. "What hit me?"

As the others rushed over to their friend, Trini hung back. Seeing this, Jason glanced toward Zack once, to make sure he was in good hands, before heading over to where Trini was standing. "What's up?" he asked quietly.

"I just think someone needs to keep an eye on Tommy and Kimberly," she explained. "We don't know what happened back there, so we can't be too cautious."

"Good point," he admitted. Trini nodded. Suddenly, he smiled slightly. It was a wry, unhappy smile. "I thought something might go wrong today," he confessed, "but I never thought it would go this wrong."

"After what Tommy tried during the melee, you didn't think there was a chance something like this might happen?" she asked, and he wasn't sure if she was teasing or not. She sounded tired.

"I don't know. I guess I figured he was gone, and he'd stay that way." He watched Kimberly and Tommy for a moment, but for all Kim's fretting Tommy was still stubbornly unconscious. Jason sighed. He had not been too keen on the idea of marrying Kim, but it still hurt that she would choose a traitor and would-be murderer over him.

He had to look away then, so his anger did not get the better of him. Instead he focused his attention on the back of the room, where Billy and the others were seeing to Zack. Let Trini worry about the Princess.

Misjudging the cause of his irritation, Trini promised, "Jason, we'll figure this out."

"You know," he couldn't resist saying, "everyone's been telling me my whole life that I was meant to marry Kimberly and become the King... but I'm really starting to think that's not such a good idea."

Flustered, Trini murmured, "Don't say things like that."

"Even when they're true?"

She sighed. "Jason..."

He scowled, but was spared the necessity of responding by the timely arrival of a group of healers and an influx of nobles, which included his parents.

Trini stayed beside him as he dealt with his understandably worried parents, who had almost just lost their only son. He trusted her to keep an eye on the Princess and the healers, and to alert him if anything was amiss.

While Jason reassured his parents, the healers examined both Tommy and Zack for injuries. Zack was diagnosed with a concussion, but even the veteran healers had to admit they had no idea what was wrong with Tommy. They took the fallen knight from Kimberly, placing him onto a stretcher and taking him back with them to the infirmary in the healers' quarter of the castle. An apprentice stayed behind to hear firsthand from the witnesses what had happened.

As soon as Kimberly was done giving her testimony, she fled. Trini watched her go with weary eyes.

"I should go after her. She's going to need me," Trini said, suppressing a sigh. After his parents expressed their sympathy and well-wishes for the Princess, she turned back to Jason. "Take care of Zack?"

"You got it."

"Thanks."

As he watched her go, he wished that for once she could think of someone other than Kimberly.

 

 

Far away in her moldy old tower, Rita Repulsa watched her glorious plans crumble into ruin. She had used some of the strongest magic in her repertoire to turn Tommy Oliver into her Green Knight, but that spell had cracked under the pressure of Kimberly's cursed royal magic... and in the end Rita's spell had proved to be the weaker.

So now here she was, with no crown, no new kingdom to rule, and no Green Knight.

Ordinarily anger flared through her like fire, burning her up inside. But this went beyond simple anger. This was rage, and it froze her heart like a block of ice.

This was not how today was supposed to go! None of this was supposed to happen!

Someone as pathetic as Kimberly Hart should not have been able to thwart her like that, least of all without even realizing what she was doing.

Furious, Rita paced the length of the room. She steadfastly ignored the scrying pool, which currently showed the still-living Jason Scott and his sniveling sidekick, Trini, as they tried to figure out what had just happened. Instead, she imagined doing all sorts of terrible and wicked things to Tommy, as revenge for his failure.

It occurred to her that she could always use her failsafe, the enchanted green candle, to exact her revenge, but that would have been a waste of more strong magic and a perfectly good knight. After all, it was Kimberly's presence that had caused the spell on him to break. It might only be a matter of getting him away from the Princess to put the magic back into effect. And then all she would have to do would be to reinforce it somehow. No, she decided, she wouldn't use the candle until she knew for sure there was no way to get Tommy back.

She smiled coldly. Kimberly might have won this battle, but that did not mean Rita was entirely without options.

The crown was the key to Kimberly's magic. Without it, the Princess would never be able to fully control her abilities. And since Kimberly could not use it herself and still had not given it to one who could, there were gaps in the protection it provided. And Rita was more than capable of exploiting those gaps.

Her smile turned into a smirk.

She muttered a few words, and directed her rage at Trini Kwan. A little retribution would serve her right, for interfering in Tommy and Jason's duel like that. But the curse simply fizzled and died without effect before she had even finished reciting it.

In her anger at being thwarted again, Rita swore out loud. It must be that ring. The yellow topaz ring gave Trini the magical abilities that enabled her to protect Kimberly. It had turned Trini into the Yellow Knight so she could compete in the tournament, and its powers were probably protecting her from Rita's magic even now.

Rita could have tried targeting the rest of Kimberly's friends, but she did not doubt that the Princess had already given them similar protective charms.

"I'll just have to find someone the Princess wouldn't have bothered to protect," she mused aloud. And suddenly, she knew just what she should do.

The image in the scrying pool changed at Rita's whim, to show a young blonde woman standing among the crowd outside the throne room. Her name was Katherine, and she had proved to be extremely susceptible to magical control in the past. She had been instrumental in Rita's brilliant capture of the sorcerer Zordon. Perhaps she could be just as useful now.

While it was true that Katherine had broken free of Rita's control before, by that point Rita had been more concerned with Tommy's successes and her impending victory than one minor servant gone astray. The way she'd seen it, there would be plenty of time to punish Katherine after achieving victory. But Rita realized now that she should have been more attentive, and more vigilant in maintaining a second ally within Kimberly's castle.

There was no time like the present to start correcting that mistake.

"Ah, my little kitty-Kat," she crooned, altogether pleased with herself for coming up with a workable plan of action so quickly. "I think it's time to remind you just who your _real_ master is!"

 

 

Tommy spent nearly two full days in the infirmary before the healers declared him strong enough to have visitors. Whatever had happened to him during his duel with Jason, it had left him severely weakened. The healers reported that he was unwilling to discuss the strange events and his current condition with anyone. Except, to the surprise of all, Jason Scott and Billy Cranston.

Kimberly, fuming at being denied access to Tommy at his own request, had summoned Billy and Jason and ordered them to find out what was going on.

And since one did not disobey Kimberly when she was in one of her moods, Billy and Jason did as they were told.

Billy was somewhat nervous as he followed Jason toward Tommy's small room in the healers' quarter. Actually, he reflected as he stepped into the darkened room, 'somewhat' was an understatement of gargantuan proportions. What in the world could Tommy want with him?

His fears abated, albeit only slightly, as he caught sight of Tommy. The former knight looked nothing like he had only a few days before. He appeared weak and troubled, his demeanor anything but confident, as he lay wrapped in a white blanket on the healers' cot.

"I didn't think you'd actually come," he admitted.

Jason scowled darkly as Billy came to a stop beside him. "Believe me, I'm only here because Princess Kimberly ordered it."

Billy sighed. He was only here on the Princess's orders, too, but unlike Jason he recognized that further animosity would uncover no answers. "What is it that you wish to share with us, Tommy?"

Tommy became suddenly intense in spite of his obvious weakness. "I need to tell you why... _how_... all of this happened. Now that I can speak freely, you need to know. It's the only way to keep," he hesitated slightly, almost tripping over his words, "the Princess safe from harm."

"Don't you mean safe from _you_?" Jason asked. "You should be in the dungeon for what you did."

"You're right," Tommy said. It came out a little too easily, as if he had rehearsed this conversation for hours, or his sense of guilt was eating him up inside. "But please, hear me out. For Kimberly's sake."

"Tell us what happened," Billy urged before Jason had a chance to say anything. It was obvious that Tommy was afraid of something, and he felt that Jason and Billy needed to know what that something was.

"I guess I should start at the beginning, huh?" He did not flinch under Jason's unyielding glare, although it must have been tempting. Billy did not envy him the telling of this tale.

Recovering his composure, Tommy went on, "This all started when I got the summons to the tournament. I... I have to admit, I didn't want to go. I didn't want to be in any stupid tournament, to fight for some girly Princess I'd never met. I was upset. I needed to clear my head, so I went out into the countryside, and that's where I ran into _her_."

He paused significantly. Billy scanned his face for signs of deceit and saw none. Beside him, Jason looked less than impressed with the story thus far.

"Her name is Rita Repulsa. She's a sorceress," Tommy explained. "You probably won't believe me, but she put this, this spell on me. It made me want to do whatever she told me, even if it meant fighting for her. And that's exactly what she wanted. She gave me armor and weapons and magic spells and sent me here to win the Princess at any cost. She wants Kimberly and the royal crown. I don't know why, but I do know she'll do anything it takes to get what she wants. If you don't find a way to stop her, Kimberly will always be in danger."

Jason's expression had grown dark while he listened to Tommy's story. "A sorceress," he muttered now. "Great. Zordon would know what to do about a sorceress, but he's not here. We've barely been managing to stop these monsters without him, let alone a sorceress."

Billy watched Tommy carefully and realized he was looking even more guilty than he had previously.

"About that," Tommy murmured before Billy could inquire.

"There's something you have been avoiding telling us," Billy concluded.

"I know where Zordon is."

"Where?" Jason demanded. "Why hasn't he been helping us?"

"He can't," Tommy explained. He sighed. "Zordon is Rita's prisoner."

For a while after that revelation, Jason and Billy regarded him in silence. Billy had to admit, the story sounded far-fetched. But then again, recent events had been quite fantastical. The addition of a vengeful sorceress would tie up some loose ends rather neatly, especially concerning Zordon's sudden alarming and uncharacteristic disappearance.

Perhaps it was all a bit too neat, absolving Tommy of all guilt and potentially sending the kingdom's defenders on a wild goose chase. Billy did not get the impression that Tommy was lying. And yet if he was telling the truth, it was a frightening truth.

"I don't want to believe you," Jason said at last. "But I do. Don't ask me why."

Billy had not expected to hear that. As much as he liked and admired Jason, Billy knew he could be remarkably stubborn in his opinions, especially regarding people he neither liked nor trusted. Hearing him take something that Tommy, who had been an enemy mere days ago, said to heart was astonishing to say the least.

Billy wished he could be so forgiving as Jason, to take Tommy's word as truth, but he was not quite ready to accept the veracity of this miraculous reformation. There were too many questions yet unanswered, and without any outside evidence to support it, Tommy's tale seemed too convenient to be true. He would have to recommend that Tommy be kept safely confined - and away from the Princess - until his innocence or guilt could be more thoroughly determined.

Unfortunately, Billy now suspected that he would find himself in opposition to Jason on that count. Tommy's story gave Jason a new purpose, a distraction from his marital troubles, and, perhaps most importantly, a new enemy at whom to direct his anger. And that struck Billy as very, very dangerous.

"If this Rita lady is out there," Jason was saying, "I'll find her, and put a stop to her scheming once and for all." And with that he turned and fairly stormed out of the room.

Not wanting to be left alone with Tommy, who still made him more than a little nervous, Billy hastened after Jason.

"Billy, wait," Tommy called after him. "There's something I need to ask you."

But, still shaken by the possible ramifications of what had just transpired, Billy pretended not to hear.

 

 

The days since the wedding, if it could even still be called that, had been difficult for everyone in the castle, especially those closest to the Princess. She'd had her heart thoroughly broken, and then had to relive it all as she watched the man she loved - who turned out to have the worst intentions - do battle with the man she did not love but was about to marry. To the death.

They were lucky, of course, that it had not come to that. Both of the knights had emerged from the battle alive and more or less unharmed. But, as Aisha had seen firsthand, things had been messy ever since. And they were about to get even messier.

First, Billy had recommended that Tommy be denied access to the Princess until further notice. Then, even worse, Tommy had agreed to Billy's terms. Kimberly had been livid. And while she had thus far managed not to arrange an 'accidental' encounter with Tommy, she had been partaking in a sulk of epic proportions. In her frustration and anger, she had lashed out in turns at Trini, Billy, and even Jason.

Although, Aisha thought as she hid a smile, Kimberly wasn't angry at Jason anymore. In fact, she was nothing short of jubilant.

Of course, it helped that he had just called off their wedding. Permanently.

Even Trini hadn't seen that one coming. She and Aisha had been preparing for a shopping excursion with the Princess when Kimberly had sprung the news on them.

"I can't have heard you correctly just now. What did you say?" she demanded.

Smiling giddily after having delivered what she considered to be the best news in weeks, Kimberly fairly sailed past her. "Jason called off the wedding. Isn't it great?"

Aisha tried to keep her own expression neutral, but Kimberly's enthusiasm was contagious. She knew better than to butt into this conversation, at least not without giving Kimberly and Trini a chance to work their disagreement out themselves first, but she couldn't help feeling happy for her friend.

Trini looked appalled. "Kimberly, this isn't great! This is very, very bad. You know what Zordon said about this: you have to marry before it's too late!"

"True, but now I don't have to marry _Jason_," Kimberly pointed out.

Trini glowered at her. Even Aisha managed to look somber. Whether she knew it or not, and she probably did, Kimberly had just poked a hornet's nest with that one. Trini's belief in doing what was best for all had a tendency to clash horribly with Kimberly's desire to marry for love. She had given them their chance to work this out, and they had just edged closer to an argument. It was time for Aisha to intervene, before this got ugly.

"All right, girls," she said, aware that they were both ignoring her. "Let's not let this get out of hand, here."

Kimberly stopped pacing suddenly, spinning around to face Trini. The Princess could be every bit as stubborn as her handmaid, and she seemed determined to prove it right here and now, despite the fact that they were for all intents and purposes about to cause a scene in public. To Aisha's eye, Trini looked a bit like the startled hunter, and Kimberly like the furious mother bear.

"Look," Kimberly said, "I know I still have to get married, and soon. And I know I can't just marry Tommy after everything that happened. I'm not stupid. But can't I just be happy with small victories? At least this way I'll get to choose my husband instead of having him chosen for me in one way or another."

Trini was obviously struggling with her frustration. "You can't keep wasting time," she said almost sullenly, as if she did not truly expect Kimberly to listen. "You're putting everyone in danger."

The Princess was no fool; she knew that already, of that Aisha was sure. But now that she had Tommy back and was no longer facing an imminent wedding to Jason, Aisha couldn't blame her for wanting to hold onto her good mood for just a little while longer. Things had been rough lately. Surely a little happiness wasn't so terrible.

But Trini had a point, too.

Aisha frowned. Talk about a no-win situation.

"Trini, I'm sorry," Kimberly said. "But this was Jason's decision. I had nothing to do with this. You'll have to take it up with him if you want to question it, because I'm not going to."

Still bristling somewhat, Trini bit out, "I might do that. I swear, you're both behaving like idiots."

And on that note, she turned to leave. For a moment Kimberly made to follow her, but Aisha reached out and stopped her. "Let's go," she advised, earning a confused, mildly irritated look from the Princess. "This has got her really riled up for some reason, and I think the fact that she's upset about it is what's really getting to her, not you. If you don't give her some space for a while, this will just get worse."

Kimberly relented with a sigh. "I just wish she could be happy for me, instead of worrying so much all the time."

"Well, _I'm_ happy for you," Aisha assured her, opting not to point out that if Kimberly wasn't going to worry about this, someone else had to, and it might as well be Trini. "And I'm sure she'll come around soon. She's just scared right now. I think a lot of people are."

"You're right. But it still hurts."

"They say you have to take the bad with the good," Aisha quipped.

"But I don't have to like it," Kimberly grumbled, but both girls were laughing a moment later. Aisha watched the Princess closely. She might try to hide it behind smiles and faked cheerfulness, but Trini's lack of support had hurt her feelings.

The Princess paused, took a deep breath, and, as if by magic, shed the distress that only a moment ago had been so evident on her face. It must be very hard, Aisha thought sympathetically, for someone as emotional as Kimberly to always have to appear neutral and unaffected in public. Becoming Queen would be difficult for her.

Right then and there, Aisha swore a silent vow to protect Kimberly in any way she could. And if that meant pretending the dangers of the world weren't out there until they reared their ugly heads, then so be it.

"Are we still going shopping?" she asked, knowing that few things cheered the Princess up like shopping did. "We don't need Trini to hit the town..."

Kimberly gave a small smile. "Of course. I don't care what Trini says. This is a day worth celebrating. And that always means shopping!"

It was not market day today. In fact, the castle seemed sleepy and quiet. Aisha wondered where they were going to find anything to buy, unless Kimberly intended to make use of the town market, but her question was soon answered. It turned out that there was a small shopping district near the city homes of the kingdom's wealthiest families, which catered specifically to the nobility. This was where Kimberly took Aisha and her small retinue of guards.

Aisha had traveled many lands in her life, but she hadn't seen anything like this before. Most markets, in her experience, were haphazard affairs: lively, boisterous, thrown together with little rhyme or reason. This was different. It was a series of small shops, housed in orderly buildings lining a cobbled street, and filled with only the finest wares.

And although they were by no means poor, she was beginning to realize that the DeSantos family was not particularly wealthy, either. She was admiring a lovely amber pendant, wondering if Rocky would kill her for spending so much of her personal funds on something so frivolous, when Kimberly plucked it out of her hands and purchased it for her.

As it turned out, while she had been browsing the Princess had gone on a spending spree. Kimberly could spend an alarming amount of money when she wanted to celebrate, but Aisha noted that most of what she bought over the course of the day ended up being gifts for her friends rather than strictly splurges for herself.

She bought Aisha's pendant and several other expensive pieces of jewelry, quite a bit of fine new parchment and pre-bound books for Billy, and she even furtively purchased some bolts of festively-patterned yellow fabric Aisha suspected would be given to Trini. And by the time they were finally done, she had also commissioned no fewer than five dresses and three sets of riding clothes from the city tailors, citing annoyance with her royal tailor.

Aisha's head was spinning as they made their way back to the castle. She actually felt kind of sorry for the guards, who were stuck carrying Kimberly's various purchases for her and would probably have had a hard time actually doing their jobs if the need arose. Thankfully, it did not. The city was peaceful and monster-free, for today at least.

By the time they reached their destination, the sun was setting and Aisha was definitely feeling the fatigue of the long day. She wanted nothing better than to sit down and eat a hot meal. But she was determined to escort Kimberly safely back to her chambers before tending to her own desires.

As she had suspected, the closer they got to the end of their day's excursion, the gloomier Kimberly became. She was probably still hurting from her squabble with Trini.

They traveled in silence through the castle until they reached Kimberly's quarters. The guards went ahead with their various packages, but as Kimberly was about to go in after them, Aisha stopped her.

"You know if you ever need to talk about anything, I'm here to listen," she promised. "And if I need to knock a few heads together to help you feel better, I'm willing to do that, too."

Kimberly laughed, genuinely laughed, and briefly hugged her. "Thanks, Aisha. You're a good friend. I'm really glad Rocky brought you with him when he came for the tournament. I don't know what I'd do without you!"

"Don't worry so much about Trini," Aisha said, shrugging off the compliment. "She'll come around eventually."

"She always does," Kimberly agreed. Her words were optimistic but she still sounded a little glum.

"She will," Aisha reassured. "She loves you. She might be worried about the entire kingdom right now, but she wants you to be happy, too." She gently pushed Kimberly through the door to her chambers. "Now, go. Get some rest. I'll be with Rocky and Adam if you need me."

Kimberly nodded and did not protest as Aisha made her escape.

It was not far from the Princess's chambers to the small suite Kimberly had given over to Rocky during the tournament. She had encouraged him and both of his squires to stay on in the castle as long as they liked, and that was exactly what they had done. Aisha was glad now that they hadn't yet moved out into the DeSantos home in town with the Lord and Lady.

When she finally entered Rocky's chambers, she closed the door behind her and leaned heavily against it, sagging slightly with exhaustion. Rocky sat on a wooden chair near the center of the sitting room, seeing to his sword. Adam was standing nearby, speaking animatedly about something. They both stopped what they were doing and looked over at Aisha as she came in.

"I officially just survived a day of shopping with Kimberly," she announced.

"Hey, where'd that necklace come from?" Rocky inquired, eying the amber pendant. "It looks expensive."

Aisha smirked. "It pays to be friends with a Princess."

Rocky and Adam both gave her sour looks; she glowered right back. It wasn't as if she had asked Kimberly to buy her the pendant. It was a gift, a token of appreciation. And she would cherish it always as a symbol of the friendship she and Kimberly shared.

"Speaking of friendship," she went on after successfully out-glaring both men, "Adam, I need you to talk to Trini at some point in the near future."

"You want me to talk to _Trini_?"

"She seemed pretty upset today, and I don't think she has anyone she can really talk to right now."

"What about you?" he asked, genuinely perplexed. "I thought you two got along really well."

"We do. And I would, but I'm too close to Kimberly now," she explained. She fingered the amber pendant on its chain around her neck. "And after this I think Trini will probably just see me as 'the enemy'. But I think she might open up to you."

"Yeah, okay," he sighed after a moment. "I'll keep an eye on her. And if it looks like she's ready to talk, I'll try and be there for her."

Aisha crossed the room to fling her arms around him and squeeze him tight. "Adam, have I told you lately that you're the best?"

He chuckled, wrapping his arms around her to return the hug. "No, not lately."

"Hey, what about me?" Rocky groused.

Still holding onto Adam, Aisha glanced toward him and narrowed her eyes in amusement. "You want to go talk to Trini when she's upset?"

"No!"

She laughed. "Well, there you go."

 

 

A week passed uneventfully after Tommy's return to the castle, and he was surprised to find that during this time he was for the most part left to his own devices. After everything he'd done, willing or no, he had expected far worse. He _deserved_ far worse.

And yet no retribution had been forthcoming. True, he had been stripped of the right to bear weaponry of any sort and forbidden from seeing the Princess, but even the two guards that trailed him at all times didn't seem so bad. He couldn't really blame Jason and the other knights for taking precautions. In their position, he would have done the same thing. He didn't really even trust himself anymore. He might be free of Rita's control for now, but he had no idea how long that would last. The way he saw it, at least he had managed to avoid the dungeons, but he had a feeling he had Jason Scott, of all people to thank for that. He was not sure how to feel about that, nervous or pleased.

Nervous, because his fate was still in the hands of another. Pleased, because while Jason had made no real attempt to be friendly, he had not been openly antagonistic, either. It was almost as if he understood, in some way, what Tommy was going through, and his desire for redemption.

He had not expected to be given this chance, but he had. He knew he would be a fool to waste it. And so after much thought (and even more mortified sulking) he had come at last to the royal archives. If he had merely offended a higher ranking knight, or acted improperly, he would have had a good idea of what to do. There were allowances and prescriptions in the Knights' Code, which every man who became a knight swore to uphold at any cost, for such things. But the Code could not answer any of the questions Tommy had now.

How did a disgraced knight go about restoring honor that had been irretrievably lost by magical means? How did he take back bold words that he admittedly might mean, but would never have said openly on his own? Surely the texts housed in the archives would hold answers for these questions, and a few others he was afraid to ask just yet.

Rita's threats of a green candle tied to his life's force - and able to extinguish that life as easily as a flame - echoed in his head, a reminder of all he yet stood to lose.

He wondered if that candle still had power over him, and knew he could not spend the rest of his life wondering. He needed to know.

It was dark in the archives, a precaution to protect the delicate documents, with a musty smell that reminded him unpleasantly of Rita's tower and made the memories of her many threats that much harder to ignore. He kept going anyway, asking the first clerk he came across where the head archivist could be found. He followed the directions with some difficulty, because as it turned out the archives were more like a maze than a library, and sure enough, he eventually found Billy.

The archivist looked over when Tommy entered the central alcove, pausing in his conversation with a young blonde woman. They both watched Tommy expectantly, Billy looking rather more fearful than his companion.

"I'm... I'm sorry to interrupt," Tommy began, feeling extremely self-conscious. "I was hoping you might be able to help me."

Billy regarded him in silence.

"I need to know what to do," he went on. "If there's anything I can do to prove that I'm free of Rita's control. I need to know that none of this is going to happen again." He didn't say it, but he also needed to know that it was safe for him to stay here in the castle, near Kimberly. He missed her terribly, despite the shame he felt for having tried to seduce her for his own gain, or rather, for Rita's gain, and the thought of never being able to see her again was not a pleasant one.

He could practically see the memories reflected in Billy's eyes, memories of the times Tommy had tried to hurt or kill Billy and his friends. Tommy let his head hang a little; he wouldn't have listened to his own request, either.

"I am afraid I cannot provide assistance," Billy said stiffly.

"What he means to say," his companion interjected softly, "is that we don't have a lot of information regarding magic here in the archives."

"I see," Tommy said, trying and failing to hide his disappointment. He should have known better than to expect an easy way out, or to hope that Billy would help him. "Then I'm sorry to have bothered you."

He bowed respectfully and turned to leave. He was what he thought was halfway out of the archives when he heard Billy's friend call out, "Wait!"

Tommy stopped and turned back to see her hurrying toward him. "If you're looking for the way out, you're going the wrong way," she informed him. She paused, then met his gaze with eyes that were startlingly blue even in the dim light. "I'm Katherine, by the way. Kat for short."

"Tommy," he responded absently.

"Here, I'll show you." She took his arm, guiding him back toward the exit. "You're the knight who was... possessed, aren't you?" she asked quietly when they were more or less out of earshot. He wondered for a moment how she knew that, then chalked it up to gossip. After all, she seemed to hang around Billy a lot, and Billy was one of the first people he'd told his story to. "Billy seems frightened of you, but I, I want to help you."

"But if there isn't anything in the archives about magic -"

"That doesn't mean I don't know anything about it," Katherine chided. "I've done some research on my own over the years," she explained. "I don't know very much, but I do know there won't be an easy way to do what you want to."

"But it can be done."

She hesitated. "Yes."

He didn't want to sound desperate, but he was. "How? How do I do it?"

Her blue eyes filled with worry. "Some of the really old books say that the flame breathed by an elder dragon can purify the body of any disease, even a magical taint," she told him. "Provided you survive, it could prove that you're no longer being controlled by an outside force."

That gave him pause. An elder dragon... one of the four great beasts created at the same time as the world itself. No one had seen such a creature in so many years that they were now generally considered nothing but myth, like the gods of the old-times. It was widely accepted that smaller, so-called "lesser" dragons had existed at one point in time, but now they were either extinct or so elusive they might as well be. They still showed up from time to time... but only in bedtime stories and tall tales.

"I'm so screwed," Tommy muttered.

"I'm sorry," Katherine said sympathetically. "I wish I could be more help."

"You've already helped me a lot," he assured her. "But you wouldn't happen to know where I can find an elder dragon now, would you?"

"Actually," she said, looking a bit surprised at herself, "I think I might. My family's home is to the northwest of here... and ever since I was a child, I've heard stories of a dragon that sleeps in a cave hidden in one of the mountains. I never really thought much of it, but..." She trailed off, pausing as if both alarmed and excited by the path her thoughts had uncovered. "Everyone knows the lesser dragons were killed off in the great war, but the people in my village told the stories as if their dragon was real. They even took precautions to keep from waking the beast when traveling through the mountains. It's possible they were talking about one of the great dragons..."

For the first time in days, Tommy felt something like hope kindle inside him. Katherine had not been able to give him much, but she had proved to be an unexpected ally where he had thought to find only distrust. And although her words were far from a guarantee, they did give him something to work with. And something was always better than nothing.

"Kat," he began, and then noticed that she was smiling. "What?"

"Nothing." She shook her head, but he could see she was blushing slightly. "It's just, the way your eyes lit up just now... Never mind."

"Thank you for all your help," he told her.

"I only wish I could do more," she admitted.

A plan beginning to formulate in his head, he smiled and said, "Well, I'm going to need maps, for starters..."

 

 

After the week she'd had, Kimberly was not expecting anything to work in her favor. But when she returned to her chambers after a long and tedious day at court, she found a sealed message from Tommy waiting for her. At first the scroll perplexed her, but her heart beat fast as soon as she recognized the crest of the Oliver family pressed into the green wax seal.

She opened it as quickly as she could and skimmed the message inside. By the time she finished, she could barely breathe. He wanted to meet with her. In private.

She couldn't believe it.

And yet, there it was, plain as day.

"Trini!"

As if by magic, Trini appeared in the doorway as soon as she had finished speaking. "Yes?"

Kimberly thrust the message at her. "What do you think of this?"

Trini read it, then handed it back and shrugged. "I have no idea."

Cautiously: "What do you think I should do?"

"Now that depends on whether or not you intend to obey Billy's orders to stay away from Tommy."

Kimberly grinned. As if there was any question. She had behaved herself, with great difficulty, she might add, for more than a week. But it was difficult to get through the days without seeing Tommy, missing him more with every hour that passed, when she knew he was just a few rooms away.

Billy might think that Tommy was still dangerous, but Kimberly knew in her heart that he was not.

She couldn't marry him, not with the taint of dark magic and evil actions hanging over his head, but that didn't mean she should have to spend the rest of her life without ever seeing him again. She realized now that no matter what Billy decreed to be the safest course of action, she _would_ see Tommy again. Tonight.

"I'm going to go."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Trini asked.

Kimberly tried not to pout too much. "I just want to see him again one more time."

Trini's expression softened. "So go. I won't tell Billy."

"But you will follow me and spy on me to make sure nothing bad happens," Kimberly finished with a sigh.

"I have to. It's for your own safety."

Kimberly sighed again, louder this time. "Fine."

"I promise not to spy," Trini said solemnly. At Kimberly's disbelieving look, she added, "Too much."

"Thanks," Kimberly said. She felt relieved that Trini had agreed to the meeting with Tommy, and promised not to inform Billy. Frowning, she read over the message again. "Trini, what time is it?"

"A little bit after seventh. Why?"

Kimberly whined. "He wants me to meet him before eighth. This doesn't give me nearly enough time to get ready!"

With Trini's help, she managed to somehow find herself at the appointed time and place at the proper time, with only minimal fuss over her hair and clothing... only to discover to her horror and annoyance that Tommy had also invited Jason, Zack, and Billy to the so-called private meeting.

Tommy himself arrived only a few moments after Kimberly, preventing her from properly expressing her irritation with the men in her life... although it turned out that what he wanted to tell her and the others gave her more than enough reason to seethe.

"I guess you're probably wondering why I asked you all to meet me here tonight," he began, sounding somewhat nervous. "Well, I wanted you to know that I'll be leaving the castle tomorrow morning."

"What?" Kimberly asked, her voice barely more than a horrified whisper. None of the others echoed her sentiment.

Looking more sad than she had ever seen him before, Tommy told her the story then. She could tell by the look Jason and Billy shared that they had already heard the tale, but this was the first time she had heard what had happened to him, and why he had suddenly become so openly evil. It hurt her deep inside to hear that Tommy had been under a spell even before he ever met her.

By the time he had finished, concluding with his own perspective of what had happened during his duel with Jason, Kimberly was fairly sputtering with disbelief. "So you're just going to leave?" she demanded. She had the sudden irrational feeling that somehow she was the one that had freed him from the sorceress's spell, and that by leaving her he would be forsaking her protection. It didn't make any sense, so she wasn't about to mention it, but the feeling was surprisingly strong. "But you just said that this sorceress was controlling you before. What if she catches you and puts you under her spell again? Then what will you have gained?"

He leveled a calm look at her and said, "At least I'll know I tried."

She tried to wrap her mind around what he was saying and failed utterly. He was really terrible at the whole explaining thing. "At least you'll know you tried _what_?"

"To prove my innocence," he replied simply.

Since this failed to enlighten her any further, she looked to Trini for help. Trini shrugged helplessly as if to say, "I don't understand any better than you do."

"I've only been able to find one way to prove once and for all that I'm not under Rita's control anymore," Tommy explained. "And that's to walk through the flame of a dragon's fire."

Everything in Kimberly screamed NO in response to that, but she could not seem to find her voice.

But Zack was more than capable of speaking up. "Wait a minute, man. Dragons? There's no such thing. If you go looking for a dragon to breathe fire all over you, you're just going to be wasting your time."

"Perhaps not," Billy murmured. "The records are unclear about the fate of the dragons. It is possible, although unlikely, that such creatures still exist."

Jason was watching all of this in thoughtful silence, which worried Kimberly to no end. She knew he hated Tommy, and she was afraid to find out how he would react to all of this. Silence was not a good sign as far as she was concerned.

"However, you cannot be permitted to leave the castle until your guilt or innocence has been determined," Billy pointed out. "Extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, you are technically a traitor and in custody of the crown."

"But how can he prove his innocence if he doesn't do this?" Jason asked. "It's this or make him lead us to the sorceress."

Kimberly stared, blinked a few times, and stared again. First Jason called off the wedding, and now he was taking Tommy's side. Would wonders never cease?

"Isn't there any other way?" Trini asked.

"We'd have to ask Zordon," Jason said. "And he's Rita's prisoner right now."

Trini frowned and look to Zack and Billy for support, but found none. They had no better idea what to do than she did.

"I wish there was a better option," Tommy admitted. "But I'm not sure I have much time."

"What are you talking about?" Kimberly asked amid a chorus of similar questions from Jason and the others.

"Rita put another spell on me," he told them. "At least, I think it's a spell... on me... To make sure I cooperated with her plans, she somehow connected my life to this green candle that she has. I don't know if the spell is still in effect or not, or why she hasn't used it already if it is, but if she burns the candle, my life will end when the wax runs out." More passionately, he added, "I can't just wait around to see if that happens. If a dragon's fire will free me, then I have to at least try to find one!"

"No," Kimberly said. She absolutely would not willingly allow him to leave on this suicidal quest for redemption. Not when she felt, however irrationally, that she could protect him here. "_No_. I forbid it."

"With all due respect, Princess," Tommy replied, sounding ever so slightly like the Tommy she had known before, the one under Rita's control. "I'm already a traitor. My actions could be, _should be_, punishable by death." Kimberly wanted to protest that she would never let that happen, but kept her mouth firmly shut as he continued. "At least if I do this, I can try to prove my innocence - and break free from Rita once and for all - without putting anyone else in danger."

Kimberly felt like she might cry from sheer frustration. She looked imploringly to Jason and Zack, in the hopes that they would back her up, but both knights seemed impassive. Of course, she supposed, they had no real love for Tommy. If he died, that would make life that much less complicated for them.

"If you're determined to do something as stupid as this," Kimberly announced, furious at the way her friends would simply allow Tommy do so something so monumentally dumb, "then at least have the decency not to tell me about it first."

She turned and stormed out of the small audience chamber they had been using for the meeting. The grim thrill she felt from getting in the last word quickly faded in the face of a growing despair. Behind her, she heard Zack quip that if Tommy wanted to die so badly, that was all on him, not the rest of them. She nearly twitched with anger, and started walking even faster. She passed several small clusters of people without really noticing, or caring, who they were. Trini followed at a slightly more sedate pace.

Aisha, who was lingering in the hallway with Rocky and Adam, saw Kimberly and Trini go past and excused herself from her companions to come bounding after them. "Kimberly! What happened?" she asked.

Kimberly was glad that Trini was there to explain, because she was in no mood to do it herself. Trini explained what had happened to Aisha, speaking in hushed tones until they finally reached Kimberly's chambers.

As soon as the door was safely closed behind them, Kimberly threw herself into the closest chair and pressed her face into her hands, muttering, "Great. I'm in love with an _idiot_."

Trini looked aghast that she would say it so plainly; Kimberly hardly cared.

"Gotta hand it to the boy, though," Aisha mused. "He's got initiative. And a death wish. But initiative's got to count for something."

Kimberly grumbled dispiritedly. "It won't count for anything when he's dead," she pointed out.

"Maybe he won't die," Trini suggested.

Aisha latched onto this idea immediately. "Yeah, who's to say he's even going to find a dragon? Maybe this will all work itself out in the end."

Kimberly sighed. If anyone could find a dragon, Tommy could. She knew in her heart that if he went on this quest, he would find exactly what he was looking for, and that terrified her. If he found a dragon, if they were anything like the stories said, there was no way that a single knight could hope to survive the encounter.

"How can he possibly think this is a good idea?" she groaned.

"You should let him know how you feel," Trini said soothingly. "Maybe if he knows just how much this is upsetting you, how much you care about him, he'll come to his senses."

"And if nothing else," Aisha added, "at least he'll know to feel extra guilty for leaving you behind."

"I can hope," Kimberly muttered.

Trini tried to change the subject; Aisha followed her lead. For her part, Kimberly endured their small talk, but her heart wasn't in it.

Even when Aisha had departed and Trini had helped her prepare for bed, Kimberly could not seem to quiet her thoughts. She lay in her fine bed, under her warm blankets, and could think only of Tommy, and the quest she feared would end his life.

There had to be a way to stop him.

If only she could think of it.

 

 

Some hours after her conversation with Trini and Aisha, Kimberly made her way, heart pounding, down a darkened hallway. She was far from her own quarters, but did not even carry a lantern or candle with her. Instead, she trusted her lifelong memory of the castle to guide her.

The soft leather soles of her slippers barely made a sound as she walked; with each step, she prayed that she would not be caught before she reached her destination. For once, the dark and sparsely guarded hallways of the castle worked in her favor, rather than just serving to totally creep her out.

She arrived at her destination almost before she knew it: Tommy's room.

It was tiny, a far cry from the suite he had enjoyed before, and wedged into a corner not far from where the kitchen servants were housed. And it was across the castle from where Kimberly slept.

She recalled Trini's words - _you should let him know how you feel_ \- and felt a pang in her heart for what could probably never be.

And then, drawing on all her courage, she gripped the skeleton key tightly in her hand and unlocked the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a companion story for this chapter: _[A Bid Farewell](http://archiveofourown.org/works/399803)_, which is more of a deleted scene than a standalone story. Want to know what happened when Kimberly went to Tommy's room that night? Wonder no more!
> 
> Note/warning: This companion story contains sexually explicit content. I made an editorial decision to keep the adult content out of _A Divine Conspiracy_ proper, but you can read it in _A Bid Farewell_.


	18. The Path to Redemption

In spite of Kimberly's best efforts at convincing him to abandon his chosen path, Tommy was ready to depart the castle with the dawn. As he crept through the empty hallways with the Princess at his side, he felt nearly overcome by an unexpectedly bewildering array of emotions. Even in his wildest dreams he had never thought that she would sneak into his room in the middle of the night, but she had. And that was only the start.

She had spent half the night berating him, even going so far as to try to command him to stay. He always refused to give in, even to her command. And then just when she had almost managed to convince him that she could never forgive him for even considering leaving her, she had surprised him again. With a desperate kiss... and more.

They had spent the rest of the night making love, exploring each others' bodies and learning what pleasure they could give and receive, as they might never get another chance to do.

Tenderness and elation warred with fear and guilt in his heart. And he felt awe and confusion, too, set into sharp focus by the sleepless night. He must have asked himself a thousand times now how Kimberly could care for him so very much after all that had happened, knowing all the things he had been willing to do at Rita's behest. But as much as it meant to him that she returned his increasingly undeniable feelings, in the end it was his determination to do the right thing that won out.

He glanced at Kimberly, squeezing her hand a little tighter, and knew he had made the right decision. Even exhausted and rumpled, she was beautiful. She was more than just beautiful. And because of that, his choice hardly seemed like a choice at all. It was simply what he had to do, because there was no other option. He would find the legendary dragon and prove his innocence. He would prove himself, show them all that he was as worthy of standing beside her as any other man, or he would die trying.

A woman like Kimberly deserved no less than the very best he could offer.

Kimberly followed him as he slipped out of the keep through a side entrance and crossed the yard. She was practically clinging to him now, radiating tension and displeasure even as she refused to leave his side. She would stay with him until the last possible moment. He half feared that she would get it into her head to go with him.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, any lingering hopes he might have had of sneaking out unnoticed were soon dashed. Although the sleepy guards paid scant attention to the couple they saw only as a young knight and his lover, parting with the dawn, Jason and Trini were waiting at the gate and they were less easily fooled. For a moment he feared they had come to stop him from leaving, but it only took one look to realize his mistake.

They had not come to stop him. They had come to help him.

Jason had brought heavy armor. A sword and shield, too, and a sturdy spear. It was all second-hand and none of it fit exactly right, but it was in near perfect condition and would do nicely, since he could not make use of his own arms and armor. Those were still locked away in the castle, and there they would stay until after his trial.

Trini handed him the reins of an old warhorse, which bore not only armor, but supplies for the journey ahead.

The unexpected gesture left Tommy speechless. By all rights, Jason and Trini should have hated him. Instead they had decided to help him.

Somehow, that made it even harder to leave.

After a few moments of silence, the space of a few heartbeats, he murmured his thanks, adding, "Take care of Kimberly."

Trini nodded. Jason smiled. "Of course," he said. "Now go find that dragon. We'll be waiting."

Good-byes were said in short order. Bidding farewell to the Princess was the hardest, especially when she pulled him close and kissed him in full view of everyone. He finally managed to get free of her all-too-tempting embrace, and made his way through the gate before the sadness evident on her face could further crack his resolve.

The city beyond the castle walls was shrouded in mist, and the winding high road headed straight into the thick of it. The journey had seemed simple when he had mapped it out on paper in the archives, but now it struck him that he might be on the road forever.

And he wasn't sure Kimberly could afford to wait for him.

 

 

With each day that passed on the road, Tommy felt an ever increasing sense of foreboding. The weather was kind to him and the way was easy, and yet he felt as if it were all going a little too smoothly. Nothing had gone wrong at all since his departure from the castle.

When he had been farther south of the mountains he had always been able to find accommodations at inns, or had found safe places and level ground where he might make camp. No one had bothered him, and there had been no sign of pursuit. It seemed as if Billy would allow him this last attempt to redeem himself. And yet the sense of impending doom had only grown stronger when he headed into the mountains and left civilization behind. Was it just fear of facing the dragon he felt, or something more?

He did not know, but he wondered about that more and more as the days went by. With autumn and winter on their way, there were few people on the road this far north. As the mountains loomed closer and closer, Tommy had no one to talk to but his horse, and the beast wasn't particularly talkative.

He knew his chances of finding traveling companions would have been better in the spring or summer, when snow was less likely, but he had not wanted to delay for any reason. Kimberly's time was running out, or so he had been made to understand, the magic slipping through her fingers with each day that passed. He meant to face the dragon and return before her time was up.

He had been making steady progress so far. He had been traveling uphill for days now, and based on the maps that Katherine had given him he guessed that he would be passing the tree line sometime in the next day or two, and he knew the going would be much rougher as he entered the mountains in earnest. With that in mind, he made camp early today. It seemed like a good idea to take advantage of the shelter provided by the trees while he still could. He wanted some cover, too, because as strange as it seemed, he thought he was being followed.

He had not seen anyone since leaving the safety of that last small hamlet this morning, but the feeling persisted. While he had not seen any sign of pursuit thus far, that did not mean he was not being sought. And if he was being trailed, he wanted to confront whoever it was on his terms rather than theirs.

He had made it his habit to hunt for his dinner, in order to avoid having to take from his stores, but tonight he did not. He took his time seeing to his horse, then built a fire and waited. To help pass the time, he sharpened his sword until the blade was razor-sharp. And all the while he kept a keen ear on the woodlands around him.

After a rather long while he was certain he heard the footsteps of some large approaching animal. A horse, most likely. And since horses meant people, someone was definitely out there. Only one question remained: friend or foe?

"Who's there?" he demanded, figuring it was best to let them know he was aware of their presence.

A moment later a figure entered the clearing, a woman leading a dappled-grey horse. She was dressed in the ill-fitting clothes of a peasant woman, but she was unmistakable.

"Kimberly!" He was at her side in an instant. Somehow her hands found their way into his. He wasn't sure when he had sheathed his sword, but he had.

"Tommy," she said, her dark eyes glistening with emotion. "I'm so glad I finally caught up with you. I couldn't just let you go on this quest all alone."

He sighed. "Kim, we talked about this. You can't come with me. I can't put you at risk like that." While it impressed him tremendously that she had been able to follow him so far without being caught, and he would have liked nothing better than having her as a companion on this journey, he knew he had to send her back home.

They might not have saw fit to come after him when he fled the castle, but someone would certainly come after her. She was the Princess. She was supposed to stay at the castle, where it was safe. Or at least, safer than being out on the open road. Safer than searching for a dragon.

"No," she protested. "I won't leave you. And I won't let you leave me."

"I have to, Kimberly," he said, even though it killed him a little more every time she made him say it. "I have to do this."

"But you don't have to do it alone."

When she pulled him close to kiss him, his resolve melted away. How could he send her back, alone, with the sun setting already? It would be the least he could do to let her share his fire. And his blankets.

He would send her on her way in the morning.

 

 

He should have known, from the moment he gave in to her, that he wouldn't be able to send her back. They traveled together for another couple of days, until they came at last to the edge of the trees. Then they backtracked to a sheltered, relatively level clearing and made their camp for the night.

He had to admit, they traveled much slower together than he had alone... but the days together were sweet and the nights even sweeter. He felt more at ease with Kimberly in his arms and by his side than he ever did without her. And while he wasn't about to tell her about it, he was glad that she had come after him. He appreciated having someone to talk to, and her presence gave him courage.

He felt as if he could do anything for her.

He had been dozing for a while with Kimberly beside him, letting his mind wander where it would. Half awake now, he rolled onto his side, intending to pull her closer, and suddenly came wide awake. He lay still for a few moments in order to regain his bearings. The night was black as pitch and frigid around him, and he realized that he was alone under the blankets. There was no sign at all of Kimberly.

White fog, stark against the darkness, flowed into the clearing before his eyes and gradually began to disperse. The horses were restive, afraid. Tommy was on his feet in an instant, heedless of the fact that he was only wearing a tunic against the cold, sword in hand. Nothing about this moment seemed natural.

"Kimberly?" he called tentatively. His voice echoed unusually and brought no reply. He hastily pulled on his breeches, boots, and studded leather jerkin and went in search of her, softly calling her name every so often.

By that point the horses had grown almost ominously quiet and Tommy was on high alert. The forest was utterly silent around him.

Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

He heard a sound to his left and turned to face it only to be struck from behind. He stumbled to his knees, wet earth squelching coldly beneath him, only to be on his feet again a moment later, whirling to meet the new threat.

It was a woman. In the gloom it was all he could do to make out that she was dressed in the strangest clothes he had ever seen - in fact, she was scarcely clothed at all - and carried a staff with her. She must have hit him with the staff when she knocked him down.

"Intruders are not welcome here," she said, her voice completely devoid of emotion. "Leave now."

"No way," he spat back at her. "I'm not going anywhere without Kimberly. What have you done with her?"

"That woman is not what she seems. You are better off rid of her."

"What are you talking about?" Tommy demanded.

The woman lowered her staff slightly, but Tommy refused to relax his guard. "She came to you under a glamour, young knight. She is not who you think."

She met his glare placidly, as if his anger meant nothing to her. As if all she wanted was for him to go away. It finally occurred to him to ask, "Who are you?"

"I am called many things," was the cryptic response.

"What do you call yourself?"

The woman smiled slightly, as if he'd said something clever. "Dulcea."

"Okay, Dulcea, you never answered my question. What have you done with Kimberly?"

"I have done nothing with her," Dulcea said. "This Kimberly is not here, and never was."

She seemed to truly believe what she was saying. And somehow that made his blood run cold. It wasn't possible. But he had seen a great many impossible things already.

"You really mean that, don't you?" he asked, suddenly miserable. He did not know why, but he did not think she was lying to him. Her voice might betray nothing, but her eyes were deep and fathomless in the dark, and seemed to speak of great truths and great wisdom. In a way, she reminded him of someone he had met once, a long time ago.

"Yes."

"If I've been deceived, I want to see proof," he said at last.

"As you wish." Dulcea gestured with her left hand, and after a moment a woman hesitantly stepped out from behind a nearby tree.

She wore the same clothes that Kimberly had been wearing, but she was several inches taller and it was obvious even in the darkness that she had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was as different from Kimberly as a woman could be. How could he not have noticed?

He opened his mouth to ask how he could be sure that this was not the illusion, but even as he did so, he knew it was no trick. So instead, dumbfounded, all he could manage was, "Kat?"

Katherine looked away, her face tense as if she was trying not to cry.

"But... how?" Understanding slowly came over him. "Rita. Rita did this."

"Yes," Dulcea said when it became clear that Kat was not going to speak on her own behalf. "Katherine has an unusual susceptibility to magic, and was therefore a perfect target for Rita's manipulation."

"You know exactly who I mean when I say 'Rita', don't you?"

Dulcea smiled slightly, a tight, forced smile that was more like baring her teeth. "Yes, I know her. Rita Repulsa, the sorceress. She and I are adversaries, of sorts. While I do not normally interfere with the affairs of mortals, when I realized this girl was under Rita's control, I knew I must free her."

"So," Tommy said, rather bitter at having his delusions exposed for what they were. "You've freed her. What now?"

"Now," Dulcea countered, her tone as even as ever, "I wish to know your name, and what an armored knight is doing passing through my territory in the company of a woman under my enemy's control. What is it you seek?"

Tommy did not answer her right away. Instead, he sheathed his sword and thought back over the past few days. He had been so happy. He had wanted so badly to believe it was Kimberly beside him, and he had been fooled completely. Every moment, even - _especially_ \- the most intimate, had been shared with Kat, not Kimberly. And Kat had not even been there of her own free will.

What would Kimberly think of him now? Dragon's fire might free him from Rita's magics, but it couldn't undo his infidelity, however unknowing that had been.

He couldn't think about that. He had to believe she would understand, or there was no reason to keep going.

"My name's Tommy. Tommy Oliver. I am seeking freedom from Rita as well."

Dulcea stepped closer. It was all he could do to keep from reaching for his sword again. She might seem to be on his side, and she might thus far have told him nothing but truths, but he was far from trusting her. She had already knocked him into the mud once, after all.

"I see it now," she murmured. He realized that her eyes were closed. "The third eye reveals what the other two cannot. I see a black cage around your heart. And dark chains, deeper than the night. It is a cruel spell she has used to bind you, and one that I cannot break."

"Why not?" The words escaped before he even thought about them.

"If I had the vessel, I could perhaps break the spell without killing you," Dulcea told him, although so far as he could tell this explained nothing. Vessel? He knew nothing of any vessel... unless she meant Rita's green candle. "But without it, it will take a power far greater than mine to free you."

So that left him back at square one. "Then I still have to find the dragon," he sighed.

"The dragon? That is why you are here?"

He frowned, wondering suddenly if he had come all this way chasing a lie. If Rita had been using Kat and this quest just to get him away from Kimberly... "Kat told me if I found the dragon, it could free me from Rita's control forever."

"It could," Dulcea mused. "Or it could kill you. It's difficult to say."

There was nothing particularly menacing in her voice when she said it, so Tommy tried not to take offense at her seeming nonchalance. He chose to take it as a good sign that Dulcea was still talking to him and had made no further attempts at fighting him. She'd freed Kat from Rita's spell. Maybe she really would want to help him, too. "So that part wasn't a lie, at least."

"No. The great dragons hold power beyond the dreams of any mortal being. The trouble lies not in the dragon's power, but in convincing the dragon that help should be offered."

"Can you help me convince it?" he asked. He knew he might come to regret this, but he could see no other way. In the stories, the hero's helpers always exacted some payment for their aid.

"I myself cannot," Dulcea admitted. "However I believe I have something that can help you. I would be willing to give it into your use to set you free."

He was cautious now, knowing he couldn't afford any missteps. She had offered her help, now he just needed to know the price. He knew better than to make bargains without knowing how high the cost might be. "And what would you want in return?"

"You must give me your word that you will slay Rita Repulsa and put an end to her mischief once and for all."

Now _that_ he could handle. "Believe me, it'd be a pleasure."

Dulcea smiled. "If you do this thing, you will not just be assisting me, you will be doing a great service for the entire world."

"Help me get rid of this spell and consider it done."

Dulcea seemed satisfied with his answer. "Stay here and keep Katherine safe tonight. I will return in the morning with the aid I have promised." And with that, she seemed suddenly to shift, her body reshaping into that of a great owl. She flew off silently through the trees, leaving Tommy and Kat staring after her.

For lack of anything better to do, Tommy built the fire back up and sat staring into its depths. After a while, Kat came and sat beside him.

"Tommy, I'm so sorry," she said after a long silence. In the firelight he could see her eyes were filled with tears. "I didn't know how to fight what was happening to me. I never wanted to cause you any trouble, but I couldn't help it."

"It's not your fault."

She wouldn't look at him, just kept her eyes focused straight ahead on the dancing flames.

"Don't ever think it's your fault this happened to you. Rita... she's evil, and ruthless. She'll use whoever she can, however she can to make sure she gets what she wants. She used me, too. And I'm here to make sure she never gets a chance to use me again."

She turned to look at him then. Her blue eyes were filled with sadness. He suddenly got the impression that this wasn't the first time Rita had used Katherine for her own ends. "Before you woke up, Dulcea told me that she can protect me, but..." She trailed off and looked away again.

"If Dulcea can protect you, then you should let her do it," he urged. "What are you afraid of?"

"What if she's just going to use me, too?" she asked quietly. He had not thought of that. She went on, "I don't know who I can trust. Or if I should trust anyone."

"What does your heart say?" It was something Kimberly had asked him on that last night at the castle, the one night he had spent with the real Kimberly. It seemed a fitting question now, too.

"I don't think Dulcea would free me only to make me a slave again."

He gave her a reassuring smile. "I don't know why, but I think we can trust Dulcea," he told her. She nodded, but did not look convinced. "You should get some rest. It's been a long day and I have a feeling Dulcea will be back bright and early."

Without another word, she got up and practically staggered over toward the bed they had made together earlier that night, when he still thought she was Kimberly. Tommy didn't watch her go.

A soft sound caught his attention a while later and he glanced over to see that Kat had buried herself completely under the blankets. A moment later he heard the sound again, like a muffled sob.

_She's crying_, he realized, and wished he knew how to comfort her.

 

 

He had been wrong about many things so far on this journey, but he had been right about Dulcea, at least. As dawn was breaking in the east, Tommy noticed an owl perched in a tree to one side of the clearing. When it realized it was seen, it flew down to the ground and turned into Dulcea.

She surveyed the campsite for a moment, taking in Tommy where he sat by the remains of the fire and Kat as she huddled beneath the blankets. "All is well?" she asked.

"As well as it can be," Tommy groused. Kat was taking it harder than he had. It hurt enough to be deceived, but to be the unwilling perpetrator of the deceit? He couldn't imagine it. She had not stirred since she stopped crying sometime late in the night, and he was starting to worry about her.

"You need not fear for Katherine," she assured him, as if she had heard his thoughts. "I will help her."

_I hope you can_, he thought. _She didn't deserve what Rita did to her._

"Come," Dulcea went on. "And bring what supplies you can carry. I will show you what you must do."

He stood up reluctantly, paused briefly to gather his things, and followed her away from the clearing. She led him out past the edge of the trees, to a small rise where they had a good view into the mountains. She indicated one of the distant peaks, which stood taller than any other. "Do you see that mountain there?"

He nodded.

"You must go to the very top of that mountain. There you may find what you seek."

Tommy felt his heart sink. It could take days to find a path, and then he would still have to climb the mountain and find where the dragon's lair might be. He wasn't sure he had that much time. If Rita knew that her spell on Kat had been broken, and she probably did, his time could already be running out. "Rita's spell ties my life to a green candle," he said quietly. "What if she's already lit it? When the wax is gone, I'll die. I may not have enough time to reach the dragon."

"She will not take your life if she still believes she can recapture you," Dulcea assured him. "Rita is many things, but wasteful is not one of them." After a brief pause to let this sink in, she added, "She would not have sent you on this quest if she thought you could succeed. Her goal will be to isolate you and make you vulnerable, so you must act quickly and decisively. You must leave immediately or she will realize her folly."

"I should at least go back for my horse and gear," he protested.

"A dragon will eat a horse as gladly as it will an unworthy human," she pointed out. "But if you would prefer to carry the beast up the mountain with you so the dragon might have something to eat, by all means do so. If not, I will keep it safe along with Katherine."

"But my armor and weapons... how will I take them with me without the horse?" He did not relish the thought of trying to climb a mountain in heavy armor.

"You won't need them. If you are clever, the dragon may be persuaded to assist you, rather than forced," Dulcea said. The pleased look on her face made Tommy wary. He could tell she had something up her sleeve, so to speak, but he didn't have a clue what it was.

"What aren't you telling me?" he asked.

Dulcea smiled and drew forth an ornately carved dagger from behind her back. He wondered where in the world she'd been hiding that. The fact that he'd seen no sign of it until this very moment seemed not to bother her in the slightest. She held it out for him. "This is the dragon dagger. If you use it properly, the dragon will aid you. If you do not, it is very likely she will take your life as repayment for waking her."

Tommy took the blade from her, feeling somewhat skeptical. It was a thick, bulky thing, but oddly light in his hand. The very tip of the blade was missing, as if it might be hollow. In short, it was nothing he could use in a real battle, least of all against a dragon. But he thanked her anyway and tucked it into his belt alongside his knife and sword.

"I will give you this, too."

She held in her hand a pendant made of some shining white stone, suspended on a leather thong. Confused, he took it. It seemed almost to vibrate in his hand.

"It is a charm," she explained, "to help your journey pass more swiftly. Ordinarily I use it myself, but I think now your need is greater."

"Thank you," he said, slipping the necklace over his head. He wondered why she was helping him so much without seeming to question him at all, and realized that he already knew the answer. She needed him to help her fight Rita.

She had somehow been able to see the spell Rita had placed on him, so she knew he wasn't lying about needing her help. If all that she asked in return was that he exact vengeance on Rita for what she had done to him, and Katherine and Kimberly and all the others she had hurt or tried to hurt, then he decided he would take Dulcea's help and not question her, either.

"Now go," Dulcea said. "You mustn't waste any more time."

He could not argue with that and set off then, but stopped almost immediately. "Dulcea," he said, one last thing suddenly occurring to him.

"Yes, Tommy?"

"Please take care of Kat."

"I will. It will take some time, but when I am done she will be protected from Rita's influence forever."

He was glad to hear that. It made it easier to leave them behind. He still felt strangely reluctant to strike off on his own like this, but he knew it had to be done. Dulcea had just made it clear she would need time to work with Kat, and he knew he had no time to spare waiting for them.

He glanced back over his shoulder once as he walked, and realized he had already left the camp and the tree line far behind. The charm Dulcea had given him was working, carrying him into the mountains far faster than he could have gone on his own. He could still make out the forms of Kat and Dulcea, and the horses, among the trees but he could not hear what they might be saying.

He could only hope that leaving Kat with the strange woman wouldn't turn out to be a mistake.

 

 

By the time Tommy reached the foot of the tall mountain, he was beginning to regret agreeing to go alone. At least with Dulcea and Kat around he had been able to keep himself distracted from his problems. Now he had no distractions and no one to talk to, not even his horse. And he couldn't seem to stop thinking about how stupid he had been. First he'd agreed to the plan with the dragon, which probably had not been Kat's suggestion at all, but Rita's. And then he'd been dumb enough to think Kimberly would have been able to follow him.

He hadn't even questioned it.

Even if he survived his encounter with the dragon, he didn't think Kimberly would ever forgive him.

And to top it all off, he'd taken a useless dagger from a strange woman he'd met in the mountains and gone off in search of the dragon without so much as his armor or horse.

"I think I must be the stupidest knight to ever live," he muttered to himself, but there was no one to reply. All he could do was keep climbing.

So he did. All through the day, until it grew too dark to see. Then he crammed himself into a safe-looking crevice in the mountainside and stole a few hours of sleep, and was on his way again as soon as the sky was light again. Morning slipped into afternoon, and still he made his way upward. It seemed as if he had been climbing forever when suddenly there was nowhere else to climb to.

"Go to the very top of that mountain," Dulcea had told him.

Well, he couldn't. The peak was covered by a sheer wall of ice. He could see no way to climb any higher, unless he set about chiseling a staircase into the ice.

Frustrated, he started back down the mountain twice and changed his mind both times. Finally he sat down on a convenient ledge and tried to think things through. She had said to go to the very top, but surely if he was meant to find the dragon's lair from the top, he could see it from a hundred feet shy of the summit. And yet he'd seen nothing that looked like a dragon's lair. Maybe if he worked his way around the mountain, to look down the other side...

The dragon dagger was digging into his hip, so he pulled it out from his belt and held onto it, intending to put it back when he got back up. He had not bothered much with it before now, since it seemed mostly useless, but he inspected it now since he had nothing better to do. It was hollow, as he had noticed before, but on a closer look he could see that it had tiny holes punched in one side of the blade. There was a larger hole set into the hilt.

It struck him then that the dagger was really a flute. Dulcea's words came back to him: "If you use this blade properly..."

_Properly_.

Had she meant for him to use it like a flute, rather than a weapon? If so, Tommy had no idea what she meant for him to play. She had given him no music and no hint, and he knew of no songs for dragons, only songs about the slaying of dragons. And he was pretty sure those wouldn't go over well.

But he felt compelled to try anyway.

He had studied a bit of music as a child, though he had given it up after becoming a squire, when it became apparent that he would never have any especial talent. He might have given up on ever being a performer, but he still remembered how to read music, and how to play. And he had to admit, realizing that the strange blade was really a musical instrument had piqued his curiosity.

Tentatively, he blew into the dagger. To his surprise, he was able to produce a sound, although it was completely unlike what he had expected. Far from the smooth tones of a flute, the notes were loud and brassy. With a little trial and error, he found he could consistently produce sound from the blade. It wasn't long before he was teasing notes and scales from the thing. And with some practice he felt like he just might be able to play some simple melodies on the dagger without making a complete fool of himself.

If only he knew what to play and where to find the damned dragon.

Absently, he turned the blade over and over in his hands while he weighed his options. He supposed that the only thing he really _could_ do was head back down the mountain and try to find Dulcea again. It was possible that she had led him astray as some sort of test, he supposed.

But then he stopped and looked at the dagger. Or, more specifically, at the intricate design that had been etched on the blade. Then he flipped it over and looked again. Sure enough, the designs were slightly different. Both were stylized flames, but the design on this side had a series of round gaps in the etching, where tiny circles of untouched metal showed through.

If he peered at it just right, the circles looked as if they might fit on a musical staff.

Figuring he had nothing to lose, he memorized the short melody, then brought the dagger-flute to his lips and tried it. The notes rang out loudly, echoed, and died.

For a moment there was nothing. And then there was a loud _crack_. And another and another. Huge pieces of ice tumbled down from above as the mountain itself seemed to stir. Tommy watched, fascinated, as the ice fell away and the mountain's secret was revealed.

The dragon he sought wasn't hidden in a lair somewhere. He'd been wrong to think it would be hidden at all. Beneath the thick layer of ice, the mountain's peak _was_ the dragon.

It was enormous, its body the color of packed snow. The white scales shimmered ever so slightly in shades of blue and violet when the creature moved. And then it shook free its head, which shone like mother of pearl and was crowned by two large horns, and blinked open enormous eyes as blue as the sky.

_Behold! I am Erë, Guardian of the Skies and Queen of the High Mountaintops_, said a voice in his head. It was so impossibly loud that he thought for a moment that his skull might split open. The dragon moved quite quickly then, shifting to stand upright on its hind legs, its neck raised proudly and its impossibly huge wings fanned out against the sky. The afternoon sun reflected blindingly off those white scales. _Why have you awakened me, mortal?_

"I need your help," he admitted. He was surprised to hear how steady his voice sounded. Considering he had just found and awakened an enormous ancient dragon that would probably like nothing better than to eat him for breakfast, he was managing to keep it together pretty well. Maybe it just hadn't sunk in yet.

_My help?_ the dragon asked. She leaned down, huge talons gripping bare stone that had been covered in thick ice mere moments before, and peered at him with one huge blue eye. _And what would a mortal man propose to do with my help?_

"I am bound by magic," he explained, "Or at least I think I am. I wish to be free of it."

_And what will the mortal man give to me in return?_ The dragon exhaled, and an icy mountain gale swirled around Tommy, threatening to toss him off the mountainside.

"Anything you ask," he promised, unthinking.

Erë peered at him curiously. _Even your life?_

Tommy did not hesitate. "Yes."

A metallic glint reflected in the dragon's eye._ You have the dragon dagger_, she observed. _Is that how you woke me?_

"Yes," Tommy said. He could not tell if she was pleased or displeased about that, but he held it up for her to see anyway. "I played the notes inscribed on the back of the blade, and..." He trailed off as the dragon drew back and regarded him thoughtfully.

_I would hear you play the song again._

Feeling suddenly nervous beyond words, Tommy put the flute to his lips and played the short melody again. The brassy notes echoed among the mountains for a long time. Erë said nothing until the last echo of the last note had faded into silence.

_Again_, she commanded.

He played again, this time with more confidence. She had not killed him yet. That was a good sign, right? This time he watched the dragon as he played. Her blue eyes slid shut and she simply listened. In fact, the great icy dragon seemed almost to purr with pleasure at the sound.

"So will you help me or not?" he asked when the music had faded again. For a long time, Erë did not answer, and the only sound was the rush of the wind. And then the dragon spoke once more.

_You have the key. You have proved your worth. I will help you._

The key? Was the song the key? Or the dagger? He did not know, but whatever the dragon meant, he knew his prayers were about to be answered. He could hardly believe his luck.

Erë brought her great head down to his level. _I have no fire for you, but my winds will cleanse just the same._

When the dragon breathed over him this time, Tommy found himself surrounded by a blast of freezing cold wind just as he had before. But this time snowflakes swirled and air rushed in all directions, and he never once felt as if he might be pushed off the mountain by the force. As the icy wind continued its sweeping around him, he felt something ephemeral slough off of him. And when at last Erë had exhausted her breath, he felt somehow lighter than he had before. Freer.

_It is done_, she informed him. _You are free. So long as I live and my power protects you, you will never be bound again._

"I don't know how to thank you," he said in reply.

She seemed confused. _You were able to use the dragon dagger. Your worth was proven and so my help was given. No thanks are necessary._

"I see," he said, although he did not. He had obviously been granted some power over the dragon, through the dagger or its song, but he had no idea what that power might be.

_You should not linger here. Your companions await, and it is a long way down._

He glanced back down the mountain then. Although he could see no sign of Dulcea or Katherine, he supposed Erë was right. They would be waiting for him to return. And it was a long way down, and a longer way back to where he had left them. The sooner he got started, the sooner he would meet up with them again.

"Wait, how did you know about my companions?"

The dragon did not answer. Instead, she said, _Keep that dragon dagger with you. If you ever have need of me again, you need only play that song. The winds are under my dominion. They shall carry the notes to me, and I will come._

"I will," he promised.

Erë settled herself back on her mountaintop and Tommy turned to go. But he had not gone far when he realized that when he finally did get back to the castle he would have no way to prove what had occurred here. The dragon's breath might have set him free, but it had left no outward sign. Unless...

"Erë?"

_Yes?_

"Do you think you could grant me one more favor today?"


	19. Waiting Game

Rita Repulsa smiled grimly. Her long vigil was at last nearing its end. All that remained of the green candle was a small stub of enchanted wax no thicker than her little finger, and soon that too would be gone – and with it the life of the man who should have been her most perfect servant, her Green Knight. Rita sighed. While she could not say that she was especially _pleased_ to see his life end, she knew that if she could not stop him from turning against her he needed to die.

_It __should __have __been __different_, she thought idly. _That __rotten __Princess __should __never __have __been __able __to __free __you __from __my __spell__. __Victory __should __have __been __mine__! __I __should __have __had __the __crown __and __the __kingdom__ and __all __of __the __power__! __And __it __should __have __been _you _standing __beside __me __in __my __moment __of __triumph__, __not__ Goldar __or __one __of __these __other __twerps__._

Suddenly her weary resignation turned to fury: the candle's flame had gone out. It should not have been possible; she had accounted for every possible outcome. She had even gone so far as to send her pawn Katherine, armed with a powerful glamour, to accompany Tommy on his quest.

The spell had been powerful, one of the strongest in Rita's repertoire. Under its power, Katherine had appeared to Tommy's eyes as Kimberly. She had looked like the Princess, spoken with the Princess's voice, and behaved exactly as Tommy would expect the Princess to behave, regardless of what she actually said or did. And the most ingenious part of all was that the more he wanted to believe it was Kimberly beside him, the stronger the spell became. Before long, he would have been trapped under the spell's influence – and Rita's power – forever.

It should have been foolproof. But instead of trapping Tommy forever, Katherine had led him straight to Dulcea. And of course, Dulcea just had to step in and ruin all of Rita's careful planning. It had been so long since Dulcea saw fit to interfere with any of her plans that Rita had assumed she was dead, or sleeping like so many of the other great powers of old. But that would have been far too simple.

Now all of her plans had crumbled. Tommy was free, and he had even managed to get one of the great dragons on his side. And it was all Katherine's fault for failing her, and Dulcea's for meddling.

Furious, Rita conjured up the image of Katherine Hillard in her scrying pool. The young woman was with Dulcea, still waiting for Tommy to return from his adventure with the dragon. Rita smiled darkly. Too bad she would never know the outcome of that journey.

She intoned the words of a curse, but halted abruptly only part of the way through the incantation. She could already feel the energy returning to her, reflected _back_ at her. And then she saw it, the jeweled necklace that circled Katherine's neck. The charm reeked of Dulcea's handiwork. Rita scowled.

Her magic could not directly touch Katherine Hillard any more than it could Trini Kwan or Kimberly Hart. Dulcea's charm had seen to that. And one magic-laced breath from the dragon Erë, who was supposed to be as dead as Dulcea, had rendered Tommy Oliver immune, too. In that one breath, her greatest warrior had joined forces with her greatest enemies and become one of them himself.

She banished Katherine's image from the scrying pool and returned to observing Tommy. She watched in the pool as he convinced the dragon to carry him – only confirming Rita's belief that he would have made the best slave of all – and began his descent down the mountain. And she schemed, her mind racing. Forces were awakening that had been dead to the world for a thousand years and more. Strong forces of light, rising to stand against the sweet darkness that Rita held so dear.

Well, she had lived a thousand years already, and intended to live many more. When Tommy and his new friends came for her, she would be ready.

 

 

Zack had never been a big fan of the royal archives, but Trini had been adamant. "Please, talk some sense into Jason. Beat it into him if you have to!"

And since Jason had decided to head into the archives for some reason, that was where Zack went, too. He was not very familiar with the place, so he snagged a pretty young apprentice to help him find his friend. To his disappointment, she knew exactly where Jason was and took Zack straight to him. She spared him an amused smile before departing.

He waited a few moments before approaching Jason, taking stock of the situation. Archivists milled around, but overall the area was quiet in spite of its size. Jason was standing at a large table, alone, looking at several large sheets of parchment.

Increasingly curious, Zack moved closer. From his new vantage point he could see that each piece of parchment was a map.

"Hey man," he began.

Jason barely seemed aware of his presence.

More loudly, Zack said, "Hey, Jase!"

Startled, Jason finally gave Zack his full attention. "Hey Zack. What's up?"

"Nothing," Zack told him. He nodded his head to indicate the maps spread across the table. "What're you looking for?"

"A sorceress," Jason admitted.

Zack tried to hide his dismay. No wonder Trini wanted him to knock some sense into Jason. "You really think her hideout's going to be on one of these maps?"

"No, but there has to be a clue _somewhere_. And I'm going to find it."

"But didn't Billy and Trini say that everything related to magic was gone from the archives?" Zack asked. "Wouldn't that mean that any maps that show her secret hideout would be gone, too?"

Jason looked displeased. "I've got to start somewhere, Zack."

"Yeah, but does it have to be here?" He gestured to the maps. "All Tommy could tell us is that her lair's in the mountains somewhere. There are a lot of mountains, Jase."

"All the more reason to start looking now."

Apparently today was the day when Jason had an answer for everything. It occurred to Zack that Trini had probably tried all of this already, and that was why she'd eventually turned to him for help.

"So, do you have a plan or something?"

Jason returned his gaze to the maps and was silent for a long time. "I'm still working out the details."

"Yeah?" Zack asked. "Care to share any of those?"

He did not look particularly pleased by the question, but Jason finally pointed to a spot on one of the maps. Peering around him, Zack could see that it was pretty far to the north, and that most of the details were missing from that area of the map. "Here. This is where I'm going to start." Jason sighed and frowned slightly. "It's a big blank spot on all but the oldest maps. I think if this sorceress was going to build a secret stronghold where people aren't going to find it... that's probably a decent place to do it. And look. It's close to the Oliver lands, too. That could be why she picked Tommy to be her pawn."

Zack hated to admit he was right. "And when exactly are you planning on attempting this?"

"As soon as I can get the supplies together. And a copy of this map," was the immediate response.

It was Zack's turn to frown. "Wait, you're just going to go by yourself?"

Jason's silence was answer enough.

"Hey man, can I tell you something?" Jason glanced at him, curious, and Zack responded with the best glare he could manage. "That is possibly the _dumbest_ idea you've ever had. And I'll remind you that you've had some pretty bone-headed ideas before."

"I can travel faster alone," Jason pointed out. "I'll need to make good time, and I want to -"

"Get out of town as soon as you can," Zack finished.

After a moment, Jason nodded. Zack grimaced sympathetically. So that was what this was about. Jason wanted to get away before he could end up saddled with Kimberly again. Not that Zack could really blame him, considering how things had turned out the last time Jason had been supposed to get married. And he had to admit he rather liked the idea of hunting down an enemy of the realm - just like the heroes from the songs and stories of his childhood. "Any chance I can get in on this adventure of yours?"

"No."

Now he was definitely curious. "Aww, why not?"

"I need you to stay here, and make sure Kimberly stays safe while I'm gone."

"No way," Zack protested. "If you're in this, then so am I." Jason did not look pleased, so he went on, "On the day we were knighted, we both made a vow, do you remember? We don't share blood, but from that day forward we promised to be brothers anyway. What good's a brother if he lets you go into something like this alone?"

"You're still hurt," Jason pointed out.

"It's a bump on the head," Zack countered, certain of his path now. He might not be able to convince Jason not to take on this quest... but he could make sure he didn't have to go it alone. "I'll live. But if you go running off to face this sorceress lady all by yourself, you might not."

"I have to try and stop her."

"_We_ have to try," Zack corrected.

Jason glared at him; Zack met the glare head on. He crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. "I'm going with you whether you like it or not, so you may as well just accept it."

Jason sighed. "Okay. You can come with me. But don't get in my way."

Zack had to laugh at that. "Hey. I'm the Black Knight now. You should be the one trying not to get in _my_ way."

"Don't make me regret this decision," Jason warned, rolling his eyes.

"You won't," Zack assured. "You know I've got your back."

"And I've got yours."

"Which means you're not going to go trying to sneak off without me, right?"

Jason rolled his eyes again. "Right. As soon as I have any plans settled, you'll know."

"Good. Just let me know when you're leaving and I'm with you."

Jason nodded absently and went back to studying his maps while Zack made his escape from the hated archives. When he was finally free, it occurred to him that he had completely failed to do what Trini had asked. He considered it for a moment, then shrugged it off. This way was bound to be more fun. And besides, he would be there to watch Jason's back. What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

Trini made her way into the depths below the castle by memory alone. The labyrinthine passageways were unknown to most, but she was as familiar with them as she was with the rest of the castle, even in complete darkness. Only when she had shut herself safely away within her practice chamber did she stop to light a candle. She left that candle on a small side table and went to stand in the center of the room.

Surrounded by the warm golden glow of the candle, and blessedly cut off from the rest of the world, Trini performed a kata she had learned many years ago. The slow, precise pattern of motion, repeated over and over, was soothing; the physical exertion helped chase away much of the lingering stress and fear from the past few weeks.

Faintly, she heard the sound of the bells ringing the dinner hour, but right now she did not much care about that. In this one moment, moving through the familiar forms of her kata, she could forget all of her troubles and she could just _be_.

That had been her plan anyway. But the harder she tried to focus on emptying her mind, the more difficult that became.

She was just too preoccupied. It had been far too long since she had taken the opportunity to center herself. Instead, her focus had been on a thousand other, more important, things. Kimberly's mounting troubles, Jason's anger, the looming threat of Tommy's sorceress, the missing books in the archives, and now Billy's latest tale of woe: Katherine's mysterious disappearance. So many things were going wrong at once that it seemed as if the entire realm might soon come apart, but in the end Trini's thoughts always came back to Kimberly.

She worried about the Princess more than anything else. Things had not been easy for Kimberly lately - what with the plague, her parents' death, the machinations of her council and the noble families as they vied for power, the mess with Tommy. As her handmaid and closest friend, it fell to Trini to see her through it all... somehow. But she was only one person, and a servant at that. How could she possibly hope to do so much?

Trini exhaled deeply. It had been difficult to manage from the beginning, and it had only become more difficult as time went by. In a few scant weeks, Kimberly had gone from frightened to cautiously optimistic to completely disconsolate. Tommy's departure had only made things worse and worse.

The council ruled the realm, for better or worse, while Kimberly spent her time sulking. For days now, ever since Tommy left for his quest, Trini had tried to coax her out of her torpor and had failed miserably. It was beyond discouraging to try so hard and never make any headway. And yet in the end it had been Jason, and his increasingly foul temper, that had finally pushed her over the edge and sent her down here, alone, in search of a little solace.

She let the thoughts of Jason flow away, determined not to let him rile her again, but her worries for Kimberly were harder to dismiss. She told herself again and again that she could better help the Princess if she was calm and centered, but in her heart she doubted her own words. She was just as out of her element as Kimberly was. She simply hid it better.

Or at least she did most of the time. But Kimberly's struggles and insecurities were starting to get to her. And while she would normally have turned to Jason for support, it was safe to say he wasn't making things any easier.

She wished they would both stop being so stubborn. At the same time, she knew there was absolutely no chance of that happening. So she did her best to push the intrusive thoughts away. None of that mattered now. She could not change it. There would be time for worries later. Right now, the only thing that mattered was her sense of inner peace.

And the unwelcome sound of footsteps in the hall outside.

Trini paused in the middle of her kata. That would be Jason, of course. It could not be anyone else. Hardly anyone knew this place existed at all.

The door creaked almost cautiously as it opened. Trini fought to keep her expression neutral even though her back was turned to the door. Jason had probably come to apologize for upsetting her earlier, so how could she tell him he was the very last person she wanted to see right now? As diplomatically as possible, of course. "Look, I know what you're going to say," she began. It seemed as if it would be easier to tell him to go away if she did not have to look at him while she did it.

"Somehow I doubt that."

He was right. She had not expected this. She turned, trying to mask her surprise. "Adam? Did Aisha send you?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "She's worried about you. But she didn't want to leave Kimberly alone, so she sent me to check up on you."

Trini smiled. Truthfully, she was a little flattered by the attention, even if Aisha had sent him. Outside of her small circle of friends, most of the people in the castle simply took her well-being for granted. After all, she was 'only' a servant, no one of consequence. "I'm getting there," she told him. "I don't envy Aisha having to deal with Kimberly today... She's being even more of a handful than usual." _And __she__'__s __not __the __only __one__,_ she thought rather sourly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

She could think of a few ways, but ignored them and shook her head instead. "I don't think so. This situation is something Kimberly needs to figure out for herself. If we keep telling her what to do and how to feel, then she's just going to resent us for interfering." She sighed and let her gaze drop to the ground. "I feel bad for abandoning her like this, but I needed some time to think. I'm not sure there's anything else I can do for her at this point. I can't bring Tommy back, or change what he did or his desire for redemption."

Adam seemed to mull this over.

Trini found herself adding, "Actually, I kind of feel like I've just been making things worse."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry, it's just I thought you two were good friends. Wouldn't she feel better just from having you around?"

"We are, usually. But..."

He looked perplexed. "So what's changed?"

She realized then that she wasn't sure. Too many things had come between her and Kimberly lately; she didn't want to explain them all, and knew she had probably said too much already. And yet... she was feeling so tense and conflicted inside that the temptation to pour out her troubles to someone with nothing at stake was strong. So she compromised.

"Jason's leaving soon."

It wasn't something she or Kimberly had done, but it was certainly causing a lot of strife between them. It was also supposed to be a secret; she wasn't quite sure how it had slipped out so very _easily_, but it had.

Jason was one of her closest friends, one of the relative few who cared for her more than her role of confidante to the Princess, and she knew she should not have betrayed his trust, but... It hurt that he was planning to leave the castle, to leave _her_, and she felt somewhat better for having dared to confide even this much in another person.

"He's leaving?" Adam's brow furrowed. "Why?"

Trini sighed. "He's determined to track down the sorceress, the one that was controlling Tommy." She left the rest of the plan unsaid. Adam knew Jason well enough to guess what else he had in mind. "But the timing is horrible. We have no idea if Tommy will ever come back. It's bad enough that Jason already called off his marriage to Kimberly. If he leaves now, too, and doesn't come back..."

"There could be big problems," Adam concluded.

"Yes," she agreed.

"And there's no chance you can convince him not to do this?"

She shook her head. "I've tried everything I could think of and he still won't budge. I don't have any tricks left. And Kimberly... she won't hear of marrying anyone else until she knows Tommy really isn't coming back." She resisted the urge to curl in on herself in despair. Why was she the only one that could see they didn't have time for this? "Oh, Adam, everything is such a _mess_ right now. I don't know what happened."

"Does it really matter what happened?" he asked. "We've got to start cleaning it up anyway."

He had a point. She had been letting herself get caught up in all of the problems at once, instead of taking care of a few at a time. Now there were so many that she wasn't quite sure where to start. She could narrow it down pretty easily... but that still left her with a monumental choice to make.

"So where do we start? Jason or Kimberly?"

Adam considered this for a few moments. "Jason," he decided. "There's nothing we can do about Tommy, so it's going to be hard to do anything to really help Kimberly with that. But there's still a chance we could convince Jason to..." He trailed off in the face of a highly skeptical look from Trini. "You don't think so?"

She shook her head. "Unless you can come up with something to try that I didn't."

"Well, I hate to ask this," he said, no doubt because he was well aware of Kimberly's insistence that Trini was in love with Jason, "but have you thought about going with him?"

"No," she lied.

He gave her a knowing look. "Really?"

"He'd never let me go with him, even if I wanted to," she muttered, and wished Adam wasn't quite so perceptive. "And besides, I can't. My place is with Kimberly, not Jason."

"Maybe," he mused, "but wouldn't magic be an asset against a sorceress? Maybe if you go with him, that could make the difference between him losing this fight and winning it."

Trini immediately thought of her ring, which was tucked safely up inside her sleeve at the moment, and her unimpressive stint as the Yellow Knight... but also of how the sword she'd conjured for him had helped Jason in his duel against Tommy. "Wait, you know about that?"

Adam grinned. "Once she saw Kimberly give Zack that magic ring and turn him into the Black Knight, it didn't take Aisha long to figure out who was wearing the Yellow Knight's getup."

Trini felt her face heat. She had hoped to be a lot less conspicuous than that. If they had figured it out so easily, then...

"Relax," Adam said, noting her discomfiture and trying not to laugh. "I don't think there are many people who know. Aisha and Kim certainly haven't let it slip, except to me and Rocky."

She still felt that too many people knew the Yellow Knight's true identity, but at least Adam was trustworthy. And he seemed to want to resolve the current troublesome situation as much as she did, so she decided not to worry about how much he knew about her secret, at least for the moment. "Do you really think it would help if I went with him?" she asked.

Adam shrugged. "I don't know, but I don't think it could hurt to have an ally."

It sounded so simple, and it would have been very nice to believe it could be that easy, but Trini knew they were both ignoring a rather large obstacle: Kimberly. The Princess was still struggling to deal with the loss of Tommy. Trini wasn't sure she could ask her to accept another departure. But if it meant Jason might come home alive... then it just might be worth it.

"I'm not saying you have to," Adam went on. "Or even that it's definitely a good idea. It might not be. But it's something to think about."

Trini nodded slowly. "But I'm not sure how Kimberly is going to handle the suggestion. She took it really hard when Tommy left. If Jason and I leave, too..."

"It might not be as bad as you think. You wouldn't be leaving her completely alone. She's got a good friend in Aisha now, and-"

"It's still too risky," Trini cut in. Kimberly's defenses were depleted enough as it was, and despite Jason's intentions the sorceress was still out there.

Adam remained unperturbed. "No matter what you do now, you're going to be taking risks. If you go with Jason, it might not make a difference. If you don't, you'll never know if you could have saved him. And if you do choose to go, you'll have to accept that it might hurt Kimberly... but it might be the right choice in the long run."

"And what would you do in my place?"

"If it was Rocky going on some dangerous adventure? No question: I'd go with him. But I'd also know better than to try and leave Aisha behind."

Trini managed a small smile. "Well, I can't exactly take Kimberly with me."

"No, but you can trust her to forgive you. Eventually. And you can trust me and Rocky and Aisha to look after her while you're gone."

She wondered if perhaps she had underestimated Adam. He could certainly be persuasive when he wanted to be, though she still worried that he was simplifying the situation too much. But he was right, to an extent. Even if she and Jason left, Kimberly would have Rocky, Adam, and Aisha to take their place. It couldn't be that easy... could it?

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea," she ventured. "But it's a lot to think about."

"It is," Adam agreed. "And I'll stop bothering you now and let you think it over. But whatever you decide, I'm sure it'll turn out to be the right course of action."

He left it at that and departed a short while later. When he was gone, Trini tried to go back to her kata, but she felt even more off-balance than she had before. The idea of going with Jason - and leaving behind all the intrigue and troubles of castle life for the open road and what might well turn out to be a grand adventure - was too tempting by half. She couldn't deny that she wanted that to be the right choice.

But somehow it seemed that the right choice shouldn't leave her feeling so very guilty.

 

 

Kimberly was scowling as she stormed into her chambers. Things just seemed determined to go from bad to worse. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to throw herself onto her bed and sleep for a year or save some trouble and just throw herself out the damned window, so she settled for pacing furiously around her sitting room.

"Dare I ask how it went?" Aisha asked mildly.

Kimberly strongly considered tearing her hair out, then decided against it. She would definitely regret that later. "No need. It went horribly."

Aisha's eyes darkened with concern. "Tell me."

"She wants -" Her voice cracked. Kimberly sat down on a nearby chair, somehow managed to compose herself, and started over. "She wants to go with Jason."

She knew she could expect nothing but wholehearted sympathy from Aisha, but that didn't make Kimberly feel any better. The Princess felt numb inside.

When Trini had asked for a private audience, Kimberly had been expecting any number of things... but not this. She had never expected that Trini would ask to _leave __her_. She had thought that perhaps Trini might try yet again to convince her that marrying Jason would be the smart thing to do, or that Trini might apologize for trying to push her into doing things she didn't want to do. But this...

Kimberly realized her hands were shaking. 'Upset' didn't even begin to describe this.

"Gods, Aisha, she wants to leave me, too. Why is everyone leaving me?" First her parents, then Tommy, and now even Jason and Trini were going to abandon her, and she didn't doubt they'd take Zack with them when they did. It had been hard enough just thinking that Jason and Trini were dead on the day of the ill-fated melee. It was worse knowing that this time they would be leaving her willingly. Just like Tommy had. And she had no idea what to do about it, or how to deal with the crushing sense of loneliness that came over her every time she so much as thought about any of them.

All the people she loved best... and all of them gone, just like that.

"I'm not going anywhere," Aisha assured her. "And if I have anything to say about it, neither are Rocky and Adam. Now, _breathe_. Okay, start at the beginning and tell me everything that happened."

"Nothing happened," Kimberly sighed. "All she did was ask if she could go with Jason, and I told her she could. That's it."

Aisha frowned. "I hate to say it, but... Kim, you're the Princess. If you don't want her to go, all you have to do is say so."

Kimberly stared down at her lap. "Aisha... I couldn't tell her no." She looked up and met Aisha's gaze. "You have no idea how much I wanted to do the same thing when Tommy announced that he was going in search of that dragon. I knew I couldn't go with him, but that didn't stop me from wishing and thinking, 'if only circumstances were different'..." She trailed off for a moment, gathering resolve. "But circumstances _are_ different for Trini. I couldn't make her stay when I could let her be with the man she loves."

Aisha's frown turned into a gentle smile. "You have a big heart, Kimberly."

"It doesn't feel like it," Kimberly said miserably. "It really doesn't. It feels like my heart's been smashed into a million pieces."

"Just remember that even without Trini here, you're not alone. I'm sure she'll be thinking and worrying about you every day that she's gone. And you'll still have me, and Rocky and Adam. And Billy, too. And for all we know, Tommy could be back any day now."

Tears stung at Kimberly's eyes, though none of them fell. She knew as well as Aisha did how unlikely it would be for them to ever see Tommy again. So she simply said, "I know."

And she did. She was the Princess. She wouldn't ever truly be alone, no matter how many of her loved ones left her behind. But knowing that didn't make her feel any better.

 

 

It was a chilly, blustery dusk when Trini found Jason atop the castle's outer wall. Thick clouds blanketed the horizon and it looked as if it might storm in the night.

For a long while she said nothing. She simply stood beside him, listening to the wind and watching the clouds gather as the sky slowly faded from gold and pink to indigo and deep violet.

Like Kimberly, Jason tended to climb to the heights, seeking the sky when he was troubled. There was just something about wide, open spaces that appealed to him. Trini, on the other hand, hated high places and preferred to keep her feet firmly on the ground. If she was joining him up here, unbidden, he knew it meant something important. But she was content to be silent, so he was too.

Finally: "I want to go with you."

He did not even need to think about it. "Okay."

She started to voice a protest, some carefully crafted argument to support her case, before she realized he'd agreed to let her come along. "What?"

Jason shrugged. "Zack's already coming, so I don't see why you can't. If Kimberly will agree to let you go, I'd be glad to have you along."

From her silence, he guessed that she had not told Kimberly of her plans. But it turned out he was wrong.

"I already talked to her about it," Trini said quietly. "She's not happy, but she said I can go."

As much as he appreciated Trini's desire to accompany him on his quest, he had not expected Kimberly to actually agree to let her go. Now that the Princess had apparently given her blessing, he was pleasantly surprised and wondered if he ought to go thank her. It would mean a lot to have Trini along, and not just because this might give her a chance to help take down the sorceress that had tried to kill her.

"We were planning to head out tomorrow morning," he told Trini. "Can you be ready by then?"

"Yes."

"Good."

And with that they both fell silent again and returned to watching the sky. As the sun set and the sky gradually grew darker and darker, Jason was constantly aware of the storm clouds that loomed on the horizon and the strong winds that were ushering them ever closer. It seemed as if those clouds must be some sort of sign... but in truth Jason had a good feeling about this venture.

Tracking down - and putting an end to - Rita Repulsa had seemed like a daunting task when he was planning to go it alone, but with Zack and Trini along, his goal suddenly seemed a lot more attainable. He might very well still be heading to his doom, but if he was, he'd be doing it with his two best friends at his side... and, frankly, he couldn't think of a better way to go down.


	20. Caught in a Web

The fateful morning dawned without so much as a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful, but Kimberly was unmoved. It was as if her heart had frozen solid within her chest. Today, her closest friends would leave her. Just like her parents had. Just like _Tommy_ had.

She couldn't bring herself to order any of them to stay, but she wished they wanted to. Logically, she knew she had Aisha now, and Rocky and Adam to keep her safe in place of Jason and Zack, but it wouldn't be the same. Nothing would ever be the same.

It was starting to feel like everyone she loved would forever be leaving her. But she put on a stoic face and got herself up and out of bed (and into one of her best dresses), in spite of the early hour, and went to see them off anyway.

Shivering in the early morning chill, all but ignored by her friends as they made the final preparations for their journey, she had to wonder why she'd bothered. There really was nothing she could do except stand to one side and look pretty and say the right words (the right lies) when the time came.

Aisha stood quietly beside her, with Rocky and Adam to either side, seeming unnaturally calm and stable next to Kimberly's tumultuous emotions. By the time all was in readiness and her friends had only to mount up and ride off into the sunset, so to speak, Kimberly thought she was going to break down in tears after all. She tried to be strong...

… and then the castle yard erupted into chaos. She was vaguely aware of people crying out in alarm as Aisha grabbed her and dragged her back toward the castle keep. Shaking Aisha off, she looked around and realized everyone was looking - or pointing - toward the sky.

Kimberly whirled, her heart inexplicably racing, to see what they were looking at. It didn't take long to find it. There was something in the sky, something huge and silvery-white.

Even Jason and Zack fell silent as they realized just what they were looking at.

The thing in the sky was a _dragon_. A great white dragon, larger than any creature Kimberly had ever seen before. And as it drew closer, she could see that it carried on its back a knight in white armor.

The dragon was too large to land in the castle yard, so it came to rest outside the wall, in the empty space that had housed the tourney field. No one tried to stop Kimberly as she followed the others through the gate. By the time they made it to the tourney field, she'd managed to work her way to the front of the group, with Jason and Trini flanking her and Aisha just behind.

They stopped to wait a safe distance away as the dragon tucked in its wings and lowered its great neck to the ground.

As the white knight dismounted from the dragon's back, Kimberly felt faint. Even before he took off his helm, she knew. She _knew_: it was Tommy.

And then the helmet was off and he was smiling, and he only had eyes for her, and it felt like she could _fly_.

Suddenly it didn't matter that he'd left her, or that Jason and Trini and Zack had planned to leave her, too. He had come back to her.

She reached him in a heartbeat and flung her arms around him. It didn't matter if anyone - everyone - saw. In fact, she rather wanted them to know how she felt right now. Tommy had come back to her not as Rita's disgraced Green Knight, but as a white knight with a _dragon _at his side. He had proven his innocence, and that he was worthy to stand beside her as her husband and King of the realm. No one could dispute that now.

She was so happy, she could have cried.

Even with his armor between them, she wanted that embrace to never end. But it had to. Tommy had to face her as his Princess, not just as Kimberly, and he had to face the others, too. So she let him go, albeit reluctantly. And then, for the first time, she noticed the two women who had come with Tommy on the dragon's back.

One of them had wild hair and strange clothing, and the other looked oddly familiar.

"Katherine?" Trini murmured in surprise, putting a name to the face.

Kimberly felt a stab of jealousy that one of the archivists had been allowed to accompany Tommy on his journey while she had not... and then wondered when Katherine had joined him, since she had not been present at his departure. But no matter how she tried to justify Katherine's presence, she could no more help instinctively disliking the other young woman than she could stop being suspicious of her motives.

Katherine joined the growing group of people clustered just outside the castle gate while the other woman stood off to one side and Tommy walked back to stand beside the dragon. But it was not Tommy who spoke.

_I am Erë, Guardian of the Skies and Queen of the High Mountaintops._

The voice was unbelievably loud; Kimberly had moved her hands to cover her ears before she realized that it had also been entirely in her head. There was no question: it had come from the dragon. From Erë, the elder dragon. She was something out of legend, a figure from the stories of knights and heroes and magic that parents told their children at bed-time. And she was standing right there, looming over them all.

_By my Power, this man is purified,_ Erë went on. _He has forsaken his bonds and his oaths and has taken my color instead; I declare that Tommy Oliver is now my White Knight, that he is charged to act in my stead on the mortal sphere, and that no Power but mine own may hold sway over him. Thus I return him to you, his people, and thus I take my leave._

For a moment the dragon seemed to converse with Tommy alone, and then, with a great rush of her enormous wings, she took to the sky. It was a long time before she faded from sight, but when she had gone Kimberly realized that the ground where the dragon had alighted was covered with frost. She also noticed, with a bit of a shock, that Tommy had come to stand before her again.

"I kept my promise," he said, almost sheepishly. "I came back."

Kimberly felt her eyes water. This was beyond anything she had expected. "I thought I'd never see you again."

But their moment together was destined not to last for long. Everyone clustered around, all wanting to know at once how Tommy had managed to find and win over the dragon. Kimberly sighed. She would have liked just a few minutes alone with Tommy first... but she had to admit she was curious as well. So she let them clamor their questions for a few seconds before taking charge.

"Enough!" she began. She had to shout to be heard, but at her command the crowd grew silent. "If you want to hear what happened, then let the man talk."

"Uh, well," Tommy began awkwardly, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "As, uh, some of you know, when I first came here, I was under the control of a sorceress named Rita Repulsa..."

As he continued with his tale, Kimberly felt joy swell up within her. She almost didn't mind the part where Katherine, Billy's work partner from the archives, left the castle in secret to help guide Tommy in his quest, or where the scantily-clad Dulcea showed up just in time to provide Tommy with the key to gaining the dragon's cooperation. They didn't matter, not really. What mattered was that they had helped him, and now he had come back to _her_.

Now they could be married and -

The thought came crashing down around her almost as soon as it dared to enter her head, because after he finished his own story, Tommy thought to ask what everyone was doing gathered at the castle gate at the crack of dawn. And Jason, the great ruiner of plans, had the audacity to answer honestly.

"We were heading out to find Rita," he said.

Kimberly knew immediately that all hope of Tommy sticking around was gone. There was no way she could convince him to stay while others went out to put an end to the woman who had ensnared him and used him for her own purposes. But by the time Tommy went on to ask for the specifics of the plan and permission for himself and Dulcea to come along, the Princess was forming a plan of her own.

She was tired of being left behind. She was tired of being sheltered and coddled and protected, as if she was useless or made of glass. It was beyond time for all of that to change.

"Billy," she said suddenly, hardly caring that she had interrupted something Jason was saying. Everyone turned to stare at her. "Come with me. And send word out: I wish to convene my high council. _Now_."

 

 

Billy had known all along that this was not going to be a good day. He had awoken late and been forced to rush through his morning routine in order to see his friends off, and would have missed his opportunity anyway... if not for the return of Tommy Oliver. And the dragon.

All things considered, _that_ was something he was glad he had not missed. But now Kimberly wanted to convene an emergency meeting of her highest council, and that did not bode well.

Making his way through the castle, Billy felt numb. As reluctant as he was to trust, much less _like_, Tommy, he had to admire the man's courage and determination. No ordinary man could have secured the assistance and loyalty of a creature such as Erë, no matter Billy's misgivings.

As it turned out, at the present moment he was more worried about Kimberly. She had sent him on ahead to meet with the members of her council while she made herself presentable. And though he had no real idea what was going on in her head, he thought he might be able to venture a guess. She was about to do something reckless, possibly unforgivably so, and he did not approve one bit.

When the Princess finally appeared, wearing her finest gown and her silver Princess's crown (an affectation she rarely bothered with, for all her supposed vanity). The room grew silent as everyone knelt or bowed to honor her presence. Kimberly let the silence linger as she strode to the front of the room and mounted the dais. Only when she was ready did she give the signal for everyone to rise and organize themselves.

Billy took a seat near the back of the large chamber that doubled as the council's meeting room, to one side with the other archivists that were currently serving as court record-keepers. He took paper and writing utensils from someone, but when Kimberly began to address the assembly, he promptly forgot that he had intended to take note of the proceedings.

"I suppose you are all wondering why I have called you here at such an early hour," she began. "But there are urgent matters I must lay before you, and they must be brought to light now... because on the morrow I will be departing the castle in the company of Sir Jason Lee Scott, Sir Zack Taylor, Sir Tommy Oliver..."

The chamber erupted into chaos around him, but Billy felt as if he'd been glued to his seat. He expected rash behavior from Kimberly, but this was _insanity_. The Princess - the _Queen_, for Kimberly was in reality the ruling monarch, save that she had not yet been married and crowned - did not leave the castle. As ruler and guardian of the kingdom, she must be protected and guarded at all times, and this was simply not possible out in the open.

Kimberly waited for the council to come to some semblance of order before continuing. "...the archivist Billy Cranston, and my maidservant, Trini Kwan."

"You can't do this," someone said, outraged. Billy did not see who had spoken, because he had turned his gaze toward the back of the room where Jason and the others were waiting. Tommy looked appalled, but none of the others looked particularly surprised by Kimberly's decision. Come to think of it, Billy himself was not shocked to hear it. It was not for nothing that Kimberly had a reputation for being quite willful; in his opinion, the surprising part was that it had taken her this long to put her foot down.

"I can," Kimberly replied serenely. "And I will."

The men of the council quieted, but their murmurings grew darker and darker. Billy noted that only Lord Scott, Jason's father, was silent.

"It has taken me a long time to understand," Kimberly went on, ignoring the antics of her councilmen. "But I finally do. I am the Princess. My job is not to sit on a throne in a pretty dress and nod my head every time you tell me what to do. My job is to protect my people. And that is exactly what I intend to do.

"I know that this seems sudden to you, and that you believe that sudden is bad. But action must be taken quickly. The threat to the realm is a sorceress. If you'll recall the monsters that were seen in and around the castle during the tournament? Those were her doing. She even tried to turn a knight of the realm against his own people in an attempt to steal the throne for herself. She _must_ be stopped, and every delay gives her more time to prepare."

This only drew more complaints, and more doubts. Kimberly lost her patience. "No one ever stopped a _King_ from riding into battle for the safety of the kingdom."

"No King has ever been heir to the kingdom," Lord Scott said quietly, but with finality and perfect clarity. "A King rules only because he is married to the rightful Queen. When it comes down to it, he can be replaced. She cannot, except by her daughter."

"Well, there isn't a King right now," Kimberly replied, now clearly fighting against strong emotions. "There's no King and no Queen. There's only me."

She gazed at each of the furious councilmen in turn, as if daring any of them to protest. None did, though it was plain to see they wanted to.

"In my absence, I nominate Lord Scott to stand as regent and protector of the realm."

Billy almost smiled at that one. It was a wise decision. Jason's father was one of the few men in the kingdom that genuinely did not want the throne or its power. He was also known for his honor and patience (a trait he had not yet managed to fully impart in his son). If anyone could manage the realm well in Kimberly's absence, it would be Lord Scott.

"Do you accept this appointment, Lord Scott?"

"If I thought I could dissuade you from this, I would try. Since I do not think arguing with you would serve any useful purpose, I must accept. I will keep your kingdom safe until your return." He bowed his head somberly.

"Thank you." She paused for a moment as if to collect herself. "We are almost done here for today, but there is one more announcement I wish to make." She surveyed her council once again. "It has occurred to me lately that there are an awful lot of old men on my council, and I am not sure that their interests align with my own. With that in mind, I name Aisha Campbell, henceforth to be Lady Campbell and to be awarded lands and titles in accordance to her new station, to my high council."

Billy glanced toward Trini at that, hoping to gauge her response, but she was conversing quietly with Jason and he could not see her face.

Now that she had truly succeeded in turning the kingdom on its head, at least for one day, Kimberly dismissed the council. To Billy's horror, she approached him after descending from the dais. "Come on," she told him. "I'm not quite done with you yet."

Billy bowed. "Of course."

He was not sure what else she could possibly hope to gain from him, but he followed dutifully. As she led him out of the council chamber, she motioned for Jason, Trini, and the others to join them as well, then stopped long enough to have a few quick, private words with the very much shocked Aisha.

Kimberly let out a great sigh as she stepped into the hallway, as if she could finally breathe freely again, then set her shoulders and led them onward.

"I hate all that stuffy court language," she muttered. "It's so stiff and there are so many long words..."

Billy did not respond to that, simply followed in obedient silence along with the others. But he hesitated when he realized that Kimberly had brought them to the royal treasure room, where the crown and other artifacts were housed. He tried to halt in the doorway but Trini prodded him forward. Zack ushered Jason into the room in much the same way. It did not escape Billy's notice that Trini and Zack were now coincidentally - and quite neatly - blocking the exit.

Jason folded his arms over his chest and scowled.

Billy, on the other hand, chose to be a bit more direct in his desire to know what was going on. "Why did you bring us - me - here?"

The Princess strode into the room without paying any attention to him. Billy was horrified to see that she had the royal crown in one hand and what looked like a small knife in the other when she turned back to face her companions. "Didn't you hear me say you'd be coming with us?"

He had, but it had not registered until now. "I appreciate your willingness to include me in your adventure, your Highness, however..."

He did not realize she had approached him until it was too late. Kimberly fixed him with a stern look. "No arguing. We'll need someone to record all of this, and I can't think of anyone better for the job than you."

With great care, she proceeded to pry a blue sapphire out of the crown and pressed it into his hand. Seeing the surprise that must have been evident on his face, she smiled gently. "Take it. I know you're no warrior. But this gem can protect you," she explained.

He already knew that much from his discussions with Trini regarding her magic topaz and the stone Kimberly had given to Zack. He also knew that it was too late to refuse, as the sapphire had already touched his hand and would most likely bond to him the moment Kimberly withdrew her hand from his. In spite of all that, his concerns regarding his worth forced him to at least attempt to protest, and even to fleetingly hope that the stone might somehow reject him. "But..."

Even as he spoke, Kimberly let go of his hand and stepped away. White light filled the room; the Princess swooned, but Trini was there to support her. When the light faded away, the sapphire was set into a silver ring on his middle finger, attached to a chain that wound around his wrist. His clothing had changed, as well. It looked much the same as it usually did, only now it was all in the rich blue shades of sapphire, just as Trini's magically generated garments always mimicked the yellow of her topaz.

Flustered, he hurriedly slipped the ring from his finger and returned to normal.

"You're going to need that gem and its powers," the Princess explained, "because you _are _coming with us, even if all you do is complain about the danger the whole time." She left him to consider that and turned to Jason instead. "Jason, I want you to take -"

"Sorry, Kim," he said quietly, but with steely determination, "but I've had about enough of magic for one lifetime."

The Princess looked hurt. Ignoring that, and Trini's call for him to reconsider, Jason stalked from the room.

When Jason was gone, Billy heard Kimberly mutter under her breath. "I was going to give him the red stone, too. What's he got to complain about?"

The expressions on Zack and Trini's faces suggested that although they understood Jason's refusal, they thought it was a very bad idea. And although he knew he did not have the slightest chance of convincing Jason to change his mind, Billy had to agree. They were about to set off in pursuit of a powerful sorceress. Magical protection might not be strictly necessary, but so far as Billy was concerned one could not take too many precautions in a situation such as this.

As Trini and Zack slipped away, presumably to go after Jason and try to talk some reason into him, Dulcea came forward. Billy was surprised, because he had not realized the strange woman had followed at all.

Dulcea looked from Kimberly to the crown to Billy and back again. "You are damaging a holy artifact," she said quietly. "Why?"

"It was an accident," Kimberly protested. "At least it was at first. But now... I can use it to protect my friends. If I can keep them safe, I don't see why I shouldn't."

"You do not know the consequences of what you do." Dulcea's voice was almost cold. Billy wondered if she might somehow be threatening the Princess, but then she spoke again: "But I can teach you. Would you learn to use the power you bear?"

Kimberly's eyes lit up with joy. "Yes! Oh, yes!"

 

 

To Trini's surprise, Kimberly had meant what she said when she declared they would depart on the morrow. Given the Princess's love of clothing and luxury, Trini had not expected things to go smoothly or quickly, but Kimberly had proved her wrong. As soon as the extra supplies had been gathered, the council soothed, and all necessary provisions were in order, the expanded group of sorceress-hunters set off according to its original plan.

As the party began its slow trek northward, Trini worried that Kimberly, who had spent her entire life being carefully protected in the castle and surrounding city, might have a difficult time of it... but as it turned out, Kimberly was perfectly at home on the road. With Tommy and her lifelong friends around her, no longer so strictly confined by the rules of her station, the Princess _thrived_.

She hardly seemed to mind the long days of riding or the lack of proper shelter at night. In fact, she confessed to Trini that she rather liked sleeping under the stars with the sounds of nature all around her; Trini supposed it didn't hurt that the rest of them simply looked the other way and pretended not to know that Kimberly spent her nights cuddled up next to Tommy.

After a few days on the road, Jason, Zack, and Tommy began to take it upon themselves to provide fresh meat for dinner by hunting whenever they could find wild open land between villages and farmsteads. It wasn't long before Kimberly decided to join them on the hunt, and it turned out she was a better shot than any of them. And when she wasn't hunting, or laughing and making jokes with the knights, she was taking magic lessons from Dulcea and slowly learning to use the magic within her.

Although it cheered Trini to see her friend so thoroughly enjoying herself, she began to wonder if Kimberly realized just how serious the situation was, or if she was too caught up in her newfound freedom - and the timely return of her beloved - to notice. But rather than ruining Kimberly's fun, she opted to spend the majority of the journey riding beside Billy. It was easier and calmer than worrying about the Princess, and he didn't spend most of his time mooning over Tommy the way Kim was prone to doing. In fact, he was keen to talk of much more useful subjects, like magic and strategy, that the others seemed happy to ignore.

So the days passed as, slowly but surely, the party made its way toward its first goal: the Oliver family estate.

When they finally arrived at this destination, Trini found herself somewhat taken aback. It was enormous. Nestled at the foot of the mountains, it had a stark beauty that set it apart from much of the rest of the kingdom. And since it was so close to the mountains, in particular to the area where Jason thought Rita might be hiding, it was the ideal place to rest and resupply before heading out in search of the sorceress. From here, they would leave their horses in the care of the Oliver servants and proceed on foot.

On the last day at the estate, Trini also discovered that these lands were the perfect place to get lost when one did not wish to be found. And Trini definitely did not want to be found, at least not for a little while.

Exploring the countryside near the estate gave her a chance to unwind a bit and indulge in a little sulking. The journey thus far had seemed to be more of an exercise in patience and restraint than an adventure. And with another journey much like the first, but on foot and over far more treacherous terrain, looming before her, she needed some time to herself.

The warm sun and lightly wooded spaces helped soothe her worries away. And she did her best to let her fears go, reminding herself that they - all of them - had thus far survived every last thing Rita had thrown at them. Whatever was waiting for them, they could handle it. Together, they were strong enough to handle just about anything.

With strengthened resolve, she let her path curve into a large arc until she found herself heading back toward the estate house. It wasn't all that long before she saw Zack waiting for her.

"Hey, Trini," he said, keeping a respectful distance. He must have guessed that she had gone off to be alone for a bit. "Kim wants your help with the packing."

Trini resisted the urge to sigh or roll her eyes. Of course Kimberly wanted her help with the packing. She was the only person capable of cramming all of Kimberly's belongings into manageably sized packs, although she had no idea how she was going to manage now that they would be on foot and without any pack animals. "All right," she said, jogging over to where Zack was waiting. "Let's go."

They walked in silence for most of the way back, with Zack making the occasional comment or light joke and Trini responding in kind. As always, she was glad for his understanding and his company. She felt almost refreshed, like she could tackle any problem Kimberly - or Rita - could throw at her.

As they crossed the large open yard back to the main house, they ran into Dulcea.

Trini had not specifically been _avoiding_ Dulcea, per se... but she had not made a point of spending any time alone with her, either. Something about Dulcea worried her. She wasn't sure if it was the way Dulcea had seemed to show up exactly when Tommy needed her help, or if it was something else. She kept those feelings in mind, but had decided not to bring it up because Tommy and the others seemed to trust Dulcea implicitly.

Now, however, with Dulcea obviously approaching her, she felt suddenly set on edge.

"Hey Dulcea," Zack said nonchalantly. He continued to walk past her, but as Trini echoed his sentiment she felt compelled to stop. Something about Dulcea's stare was just... mesmerizing.

"There are wards on you," Dulcea observed. "Strong ones."

Trini frowned. "Wards?"

"Protective magic. These bear... Zordon's signature," Dulcea explained, sounding mildly surprised. "Do you remember ever receiving such an enchantment?"

"No," Trini answered honestly, feeling a bit confused by the whole conversation.

"If it is your wish, I can remove the enchantment."

"No," she decided after a moment's thought. "If Zordon gave me an enchantment to ward off danger... then I think I should accept his protection, even if he didn't ask first."

Dulcea seemed to accept this, but as Trini made an excuse and crept away, the expression on Dulcea's face was nothing short of unsettling.

When they were, hopefully, out of earshot, Zack leaned over and whispered, "What was that about?"

Trini shook her head. "I have no idea."

 

 

Jason had thought that the sorceress's mountain fortress would be visible from a long way off, but it was so well hidden and so carefully guarded that it was nearly impossible to find until they were practically on top of it. Indeed, if Tommy and Dulcea had not known where they were going, it was likely they would never have found it at all, and would have been stuck wandering aimlessly in the mountains forever.

As the small group stood at the base of the mountain and stared up at the thick, brambly forest that should not exist at this height, Tommy had to admit, "Okay, that's new. This whole area was wide open the last time I was here."

It made sense. This sorceress was not a fool. She would not have let her defenses remain static now that one of her own had turned on her - not when she knew he would be coming for her, and when she knew that others would soon be on her trail as well. No, Rita would not have left herself defenseless. What lay ahead of them now was doubtless not an easy path... but Jason was looking forward to walking it anyway.

"I don't like the look of this," Kimberly observed. "It has to be a trap. If there's even a way in at all."

"You have a better idea?" Jason asked. He agreed with Kimberly that this was most likely a trap; after all, no normal forest grew so closely together as to form what looked like a wall studded with thorns. He thought briefly of Tommy's dragon, but he wasn't sure if the creature would be willing to help the rest of them, or only Tommy, to get past this obstacle.

"Let's look for a way in before we decide what to do," Tommy suggested.

They did not have to go far before they found an opening in the thick wall of vegetation. It might have been a door, but it really seemed more like the entrance to a tunnel. Dark branches covered in spines and thorns arched overhead, making it seem as if entering would mean burrowing underground.

"Well, there's an entrance," Jason said.

"I still don't like it," Kimberly complained. "This is a bad idea."

"Doesn't look like we have a choice," Zack pointed out. "Unless you want to try calling Tommy's dragon and see if she'll carry us over."

Kimberly frowned while Tommy protested, "She's not _my _dragon."

"We will use the dragon as a last resort," Billy decided. "Does that satisfy everyone?"

Dulcea seemed pleased by this. "Rita can be crafty," she told them, "but if you are alert for her tricks, and you are confident in your purpose and your friendships, then you can overcome any obstacles she may put in your way."

Kimberly looked to Jason for support, but he merely shrugged. Dulcea's plan seemed fine to him: charge in, jump over any hurdles, and chop the sorceress's head off before she knew what was happening. Simple enough. "Let's get going."

The others followed his lead, some more reluctantly than others. But eventually even the most reluctant among them began to relax, as they made their way deeper into the tunnel without anything untoward happening. It wasn't until they walked out from under the canopy of branches to find themselves bathed in thin white light, like moonlight, and with two diverging paths - each walled in by branches like the tunnel they had just emerged from - in front of them that Jason began to worry. They had definitely just walked out of the normal world and into Rita's world.

"It's a maze," Trini murmured, putting voice to what all of them were thinking. "Which way should we go?"

One path curved off to the left while the other continued straight ahead for a ways before making a sharp right turn. Jason had no better idea than Trini which way they should go, but the path to the left seemed somehow darker than the one leading right. "Straight ahead," he decided. "And we'll stick to the right whenever there's more than one way to go."

He had hoped that Dulcea might offer some advice on the matter, but she seemed content to accept his decisions and simply followed along with the others as he led the way. Tommy joined him up front, but after a while they began to alternate with one leading and the other falling back among the others for a bit. Jason had worried that Kimberly or Billy might have trouble keeping up, but he was pleased to see Trini and Zack bringing up the rear.

After they had been walking for about an hour without incident, Jason slowed his pace, pausing to see how each of his companions was holding up. He had just finished a brief conversation with Trini when Rita struck at last.

At first he didn't think much of it, but then he realized that the ground was rumbling. The sensation seemed to be more intense toward his left. Brow furrowing, he looked in that direction, only to see the oncoming edge of a rock slide come hurtling over the thorny wall to the left.

Up ahead, Tommy hauled Billy out of the way while Kimberly and Dulcea raced out of range of the rocks. Knowing they weren't fast enough to get past the landslide, Jason and Trini stumbled backward. Jason ran into Zack and the two of them almost went down in a tangle, but managed to scramble to safety. As he watched the rocks continue to cascade into their path, and then overflow the wall and carry on down the mountain to their right, Jason could only hope that his friends on the other side of the landslide had not been crushed.

It seemed like an eternity before the rocks stopped falling and silence descended over the maze. Almost as soon as the landslide had stilled, Trini was trying to climb the rocks and shouting for Kimberly.

"Hey, are you trying to cause another avalanche?" Zack asked, wisely falling silent when she shot a glare over her shoulder at him.

"I'm trying to see if our friends are still alive," she retorted.

"We're fine!" came the answer from the other side. It was Tommy that had shouted.

Kimberly added, "Is everyone okay? Can you get over the rocks?"

Trini had managed to climb maybe ten feet up the rock pile before it gave out from under her. As Jason hurried to catch her, Zack told the others, "We're fine. But as for climbing over... I think that's a no."

While Jason steadied her, Trini turned slightly to frown at him. "We don't even know they're going the right way. Rita could just be trying to separate us," she said quietly.

Jason had a feeling the rockfall was a sign that they were on the right track and Rita was trying to slow them down... but Trini could be right, too. Maybe Rita wanted them divided. Fewer enemies would be easier to manage. He let go of Trini so he could face Zack, too. "So what do you think we should do?"

"We're not going to have time to dig through this," Zack pointed out. "Unless we can find a safe way over, I think we'd better look for a way around." Trini nodded her agreement.

Jason couldn't argue with that. To their friends on the other side, he shouted, "Go. We'll find another way."

"Are you sure?" This came from Kimberly.

"Yes," Trini answered. "We're sitting targets right here. We need to keep moving or Rita can just keep throwing rocks at us. If we're moving, we'll be harder to hit."

Jason could hear Kimberly grumbling, but she did not try to argue the point. They all knew they were stronger together, but they had to work with the situation at hand. He was willing to count them lucky that no one had been injured or killed, and simply deal with being split up - for the moment. He had every confidence that they would be able to find a way around and meet up with their friends again at the tower itself.

"Come on," he said at last. "We'd better get moving."

Zack fell into step behind him, letting him lead the way. Trini hesitated a bit, taking one last look at the roadblock before hurrying after them.

"We need to stick together," Jason said as they made their way down one of the side passages they had ignored earlier. "We can't let her split us up again. If she catches one of us on our own, it's going to mean big trouble." Of course, he had no idea what Rita had in mind, but it seemed like good advice anyway. They had no way of knowing what traps might lie around the next corner, so it was best to be alert for anything.

But the more they walked without encountering any additional obstacles, the more suspicious he started to feel. Maybe they had been going the right way, and Rita was just trying to separate Tommy from his allies, sending the rest of them on a wild goose chase. He did not want to cast doubt on his earlier decision, but he had a nagging feeling they were going the wrong way.

As if in response to his thoughts, the path ahead of them abruptly opened up into a large hub with numerous other paths branching off of it. While it was unexpectedly large and open, it was not empty. Statues like the twisted figures of men lined the outside edge between the path openings, with a lone figure standing in the center. At first he thought it was just another statue, but when it caught sight of them it let its cloak fall to the ground and he could see that it was actually a woman. A very beautiful - and dangerous looking - woman.

"I'm impressed," the woman said calmly, her lips almost forming a smirk. "I didn't think you'd find me so quickly."

Jason, Zack, and Trini regarded her in silence. None of them were foolish enough to think this woman might be an ally.

Trini slipped her magic ring onto her finger, and transformed her travel clothes into armor. A moment later, Zack did the same, the power of his ring changing his lightweight traveling mail into sturdier plate armor. For a moment Jason thought of Kimberly's offer of a similar magic stone, and almost wished he had accepted. It certainly would have been easier than wearing his heavy armor all this way.

After giving them several minutes and realizing they would not approach her, the woman gave a small, self-satisfied laugh. "You are smarter than I thought you would be," she said. She began to slowly head toward them. Jason resisted the urge to draw his sword and put himself more directly between this woman and his friends.

"I was human once," the woman went on, still walking steadily toward them, "like the three of you. And since I know it will ease your worthless mortal hearts to know the name of the one who will end you... I am Scorpina."

Scorpina. Jason could see it now, the way her helmet looked like the tail of a scorpion and how her armor mimicked the creature's segmented body. And he remembered what Tommy had said, that Scorpina had been the one to bring Zordon and his crystal prison to Rita's tower. He wondered if she still had that crystal with her or if they would find it within the tower, and then decided it didn't really matter. If they didn't stop Scorpina here, she would just go on to cause trouble for their friends.

"Back down now and we'll let you live," he found himself saying.

"Please. Even with the three of you together you have no chance of defeating me." She stopped walking when she was about twenty feet away from them and drew a wicked looking blade from the sheath at her side. "Lay down your weapons and I will make your deaths quick and painless." She let her gaze roam over each of them in turn, starting with Zack and finishing with Jason, then amended, "Except you. You look like you might be fun to play with."

Jason glared at her, uncomfortable in the face of her implications. He had no desire whatsoever to end up as her plaything. The idea merely strengthened his resolve to beat her here and now. Drawing his sword, he told her, "Thanks, but I'll take my chances."

Scorpina smiled cruelly. "I was hoping you would say that."

And with that she charged, closing the distance between them as quick as lightning. He barely had time to block the first attack with his sword before she was on him, and then she was relentless. It was all he could do to keep up with her, but somehow he managed to keep her at bay.

In the meantime, Zack and Trini stayed well clear of the battle, circling around behind Scorpina in the hopes of finding an opening. Unfortunately, Scorpina was very well trained and kept the fight moving at all times so as not to present an easy target. And despite Jason's best efforts, he was not able to turn the fight in his favor, much less pin her down long enough for his friends to help.

He got the impression that she was just playing with him, testing him, and that she would be going after Trini and Zack next. He was determined to find a way to keep her from doing that, but somehow she got her leg between them the next time they clashed, and kicked hard enough to send him reeling backward and leave him gasping for air. With him momentarily incapacitated, she turned to Trini and began her assault.

Scorpina had the advantage of range, but somehow Trini was faster. Whenever Scorpina struck at her, she managed to slip out of the way and avoid being caught or hit. But Jason knew it was only a matter of time before Trini would begin to tire or Scorpina would manage to back her into a corner - or up against one of those creepy statues. And he knew he would have to find a way to intervene before that happened. The tricky part would be doing it without putting Trini in more danger.

He waited, moving slowly closer as the battle between the two women intensified. On the opposite side of the fight, Zack mimicked his movements. Jason watched the battle closely, wincing sympathetically as Trini misread a feint and Scorpina slammed into her with a shoulder. Trini stumbled backward. Scorpina's sword sliced toward Trini, and although the blade glanced off her armor, the force of the blow sent her tumbling.

She regained her footing too slowly; Scorpina charged toward her, ready to impale her with the blade.

Jason was already in motion before Scorpina took that first step. He wasn't willing to take the chance that Trini's armor couldn't protect her from a sword's thrust. He was aware that Zack was also running, but angling to throw Scorpina off target, rather than to reach Trini.

Zack was half a second too slow, his axe missing Scorpina by mere inches. But Jason had been closer, and he was fast enough.

He shoved Trini out of the way and realized his mistake too late. He had no shield, and brought his sword up to block too slowly. Trini's magical armor might have protected her from Scorpina's attack, but his armor had no magic. And Scorpina's blade pierced through it as easily as if he had not been wearing it at all.

At first he was not certain she'd even managed to strike him. It did not hurt and it did not bleed. He actually had to look to see that she'd speared him near the right shoulder joint of his armor. She leaped back, pulling the blade out as she went, a cruel smirk on her face as she surveyed her handiwork.

Jason was suddenly acutely aware of the beating of his heart; each beat echoed in his ears like the sound of distant drums. Around him, the battle seemed to grow impossibly slow.

Someone cried out his name, though he could not be sure if it had been Trini or Zack, or even both of them at once. And then it did not matter, because it felt as if his very blood was aflame.

He watched Trini's knives strike at Scorpina only to be deflected uselessly away... but his body was going numb and he could not quite understand what had just happened, only that Scorpina's sword must have been coated with poison. The strangest sensation overwhelmed him, as though the heat from his boiling blood had melted his armor and dissolved it away. He lost his balance a moment later and stumbled, but Trini was there to catch him. There were tears shining in her eyes, though he had no idea why.

"Don't cry," he tried to say.

But Trini's face turned cruel and changed - he realized with a sort of dim, sluggish horror that she'd somehow become Scorpina - and as she bent down to kiss him, fire rose up from nowhere to burn him to ash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a companion story for this chapter: _[Sweet Dreams](http://archiveofourown.org/works/876816)_, which is more of a deleted scene than a standalone story. Want to know what Jason experienced immediately following this chapter, while suffering the effects of Scorpina's poison? Wonder no more!
> 
> Note/warning: This companion story contains non-consensual sexually explicit content. I made an editorial decision to keep the adult content out of _A Divine Conspiracy_ proper, but you can read it in _Sweet Dreams_.


	21. Lost and Damned

Trepidations weighed Billy's heart down as he followed Tommy, Kimberly, and Dulcea away from the rockslide that had cut them off from their three friends. But the decision to continue had been made, and he could not argue with his Princess or her chosen knight, so he followed them in gloomy silence and hoped for the best.

After a while, Dulcea seemed to become aware of his dark mood and slowed down so she could fall into step beside him. "Something is bothering you," she observed.

"Affirmative," he said with a sigh. "I fear that our friends may encounter unexpected difficulties that they may not be able to overcome without our assistance."

Dulcea nodded slightly. "They may," she allowed. "But I do not feel that anything is amiss thus far." Seeing his perplexed look, she explained, "Before we reached this mountain, I took the precaution of imprinting each of your auras into my mind. I can sense each of your life forces from a distance. If any of you, including Jason, Trini, and Zack, is seriously injured or even killed, I will know."

Billy did not respond to that because he was not particularly reassured. He did not see what good it would do them to know if their friends were in danger, when they still could not hope to reach them in time to be of any use. Thankfully, Dulcea did not seem bothered by his lack of appreciation for her 'precautions', and was content to walk along in silence.

It was a long time before they ran into any more pitfalls. Thankfully, after the rockslide they were all more or less on the alert for trouble, and when Rita finally made another move, they were ready for it. One moment the four of them were walking down the path, and the next moment the ground beneath Kimberly's feet simply disappeared.

The Princess cried out in fear and began to fall into the pit that had opened up beneath her, but Tommy had quick reflexes. He was able to catch her and pull her out before anything untoward could happen. For a moment after the close call, Tommy simply held Kimberly close. The two spoke quietly to each other, but Billy could not hear what they were saying. He did not particularly mind, except that this seemed like it was not the most opportune time for the two to explore their affections. Rita could strike again at any moment, and they were acting as if they were the only two people in the world.

In order to hide his frustration with their antics, he wandered over to have a look at the pit for himself. It was roughly circular, perhaps five feet across and twenty or thirty feet deep. Billy noted with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that the bottom of the hole was lined with thick wooden spikes that had been sharpened to dangerous looking points. Kimberly was lucky indeed that Tommy had been able to catch her; there was no way she could have survived a landing without being impaled.

Finally, Tommy spoke loudly enough that everyone, not just Kimberly, could hear. "Come on. We have to keep moving."

"What if there are more pits?" Kimberly asked, her voice trembling slightly. Billy felt bad for being irritated with her a moment ago. She was obviously quite shaken by what had happened, and Tommy was only being kind by taking the time to comfort her.

"We'll just have to be careful where we step."

Tommy could not have had any idea just how true his words were, but the path ahead turned out to be littered with hidden pits just like the one that had nearly ensnared Kimberly. They were completely indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain - a feat that must have been accomplished by magical means - until one attempted to put weight on them, at which point the illusion failed and the traps were revealed for what they really were. It was easy enough to get by them, but Tommy still seemed ill at ease.

As he pointed out, "It seems awfully weird that she used to send monsters against you, but now she's just left holes in the ground."

He was right. It did seem awfully passive for a sorceress who had given Tommy the ability to summon enormously powerful monsters at will. He could not think of any reason for her to do something like this, unless she was simply conserving her power for the ultimate battle. And if that was the case, Billy was not looking forward to meeting this Rita Repulsa.

He did not know why Kimberly had been so insistent that he accompany her and the others on this quest in the first place. He was not a mage. He was not even a warrior by any means. He could not hope to help them in the battle to come. At least Kimberly had thought to give him the magic sapphire to protect him, but he was not sure how efficacious that might prove against a sorceress's power - and he definitely did not want to find out. As they began to move forward again, being careful to test the ground in front of them before each step, he found himself wishing that he was back home in the castle archives instead of wandering through a maze in search of a sorceress.

In the end, he supposed it was too late for such pessimistic thinking, since the way back through the maze was presumably blocked and in any case leaving it would not reduce the threat Rita posed. He would be no safer back home than he was right here. With that in mind, he tried to feel more determined than he had before. Maybe he would not be required to fight, or find himself on the wrong end of Rita's magic wand. Maybe he would simply be required to record the battle for posterity.

The idea cheered him, and looking at Tommy in his dragon-enchanted white armor, he could almost believe it.

They had only been walking a short while after that when Billy realized that Dulcea was no longer following them. Looking back, he saw her standing some distance behind them, unmoving, a look of consternation upon her face.

"Dulcea, has something -" he started to ask.

She grimaced. "I cannot continue with you."

Tommy and Kimberly turned back at that. "What?" they asked, almost at the same time.

"I must go back," Dulcea explained. "Jason's life force has... all but disappeared. Your friend's life is in serious danger."

Billy felt his heart sink. No wonder things had seemed so easy on their end; Rita had been busy with their friends. If she had really managed to take out Jason... then he did not have much hope for Trini or Zack. And once those three were out of commission, it would only be a matter of time before Rita turned her eye, and her magic powers, on the survivors.

"What are we going to do?" Kimberly asked.

"You are going to keep heading toward the tower," Dulcea said sharply. "There is no time to waste. I will go back alone and see if anything can be done for Jason, Trini, and Zack. Whatever you do now, do not let Rita separate you further."

Billy and the others looked at her expectantly, but she did not seem to have any more wisdom to impart.

"That's it?" Kimberly asked. "What are we supposed to do, hold hands or something?"

"If you must."

The Princess frowned, but Dulcea paid no attention to her. Instead, she ran her hand over the pendant she wore around her neck and headed back the way they had come - moving much faster than seemed possible.

"How did she..." Billy wondered aloud.

"Remember how she gave me a charm so I could find Erë faster?" Tommy said. "She's using it now. Come on. We have to trust that she'll take care of Jason and the others. And while she's doing that, we need to stop Rita."

With his fears only increasing by the second, Billy was reluctant to keep going. He would have preferred to accompany Dulcea, even if she was heading straight toward something that had managed to incapacitate Jason. But he was not given a say in the matter. Kimberly grabbed him by the hand, linked her other hand with Tommy's, and they set off again.

They went down several dead end paths before finding one that led them out of the maze entirely. They stood now at the edge of an enormous cleared area surrounded by a curved wall with openings set into it at evenly spaced intervals. At the center of that huge clearing stood Rita's tower: a massive, crooked thing that looked as if it could not have been created by mortal means. The stones seemed to almost melt and fuse together, rather than lying in even rows like ordinary architecture. Tiny windows spiraled almost all of the way to the top, which was surprisingly unfortified. The only entry point appeared to be a large reinforced wooden door set at ground level.

Billy had a bad feeling about that door. They did not have a ram or any other means of obtaining entry, nor did they have the supplies required for any sort of successful siege. All Rita would have to do to keep them out was bar the door, and they would be at an impasse.

Rather than dwelling on the impossibility of gaining entry to the tower, Billy carefully took stock of the rest of the clearing. At a point nearly halfway between where they stood and the tower's entrance was a large statue. Even from a distance it was obvious that the thing was grotesque, combining bits and pieces of various animals with an overall human shape. It had large armored wings and a face that looked like it might belong to a lion.

"That is one ugly statue," Kimberly commented.

As if it had heard her insulting it, the 'statue' came to life.

 

 

Trini heard the sickening sound as Scorpina's sword pierced through armor and flesh, but she did not want to believe what she had heard. It had all happened so quickly - the fight with Scorpina, Jason shoving her out of the way of what might have been a mortal blow - that she was not entirely sure exactly what had just happened, only that she was afraid to look.

But she knew she had to look. She had to know. And when she turned to see, there was no denying the hole Scorpina's sword had punched in Jason's armor. He'd dropped his sword, his right arm hanging useless at his side as he stared uncomprehending at Scorpina. For her part, Scorpina seemed entirely unconcerned. Instead, she was content to step back and inspect her blood-stained sword.

_Oh, gods, _no.

Trini fairly shook with rage. Her throwing knives appeared in her hands by magic and she hurled them at Scorpina, hoping against hope for a lucky shot. She did not wait to see if either of the blades actually hit their mark, but hurried to Jason's side instead. She knew she was leaving herself open to attack, but trusted Zack to keep her safe. Right now, all that really mattered was that Jason needed her help.

Something was very wrong. She could tell he was unsteady on his feet, and his knees buckled just as she reached him. It was all she could do to catch him and keep him from falling.

"Jason, come on. Snap out of it," she urged. His eyes were open, but he gave no sign of having heard her at all. Panic seized at her heart and she turned to glare at Scorpina. "What did you do to him?" she demanded.

Scorpina smirked. "If he doesn't bleed out from that wound, my poison will see that he meets his end."

Poison...

Trini's vision blurred; she realized belatedly that it was because her eyes had filled with tears. They might have had some hope of fighting Scorpina off and binding and treating Jason's injury - although Trini had her doubts about his ability to use his sword arm after this - but there was nothing they could do about poison, except hope he was strong enough to beat it. And she had her doubts about that, too.

She blinked the tears away and looked around her, knowing that time was of the essence. She and Zack would need to act quickly. She did not know why Scorpina was waiting so long to attack again, but they would have to stop her and find a way to help Jason, and...

For a moment all she could do was stare in confusion. Zack and Scorpina were gone. She had not even heard them leave. She tried calling for Zack, but there was no response. Wherever he was, he either couldn't hear her or couldn't get back to her. Which meant...

She looked down at Jason, held awkwardly against her, and felt overwhelmed.

He was a knight. He had been a warrior ever since the day she first met him. She had known, logically, that whenever he went out to do battle, even just in a tournament, that he risked death. Although she could not recall a single instance of a knight dying in battle, she had always known it was a possibility. And so she had thought she was prepared for that eventuality. She had been wrong.

Nothing could have prepared her for this, for the sudden pain deep inside or the flood of horror and guilt and if-onlys. She couldn't bear the thought of Jason dying. Back on the day of the melee, when she and Jason fell into the river and nearly drowned, it had been different. She had known only grim determination that day. Fueled by her ring's power, she had been able to save him.

She couldn't save him now.

She sank to her knees, careful not to jostle him, and felt tears spring to her eyes again. This time she let them fall. "What were you thinking?" she asked, knowing he would not hear her. She tried to say more, but the words were lost in a sob. She hated that Zack had left her to deal with this alone; it was so much easier to be strong in front of someone else. But right now, all but alone and with nothing to do but wait for the end, she could not help but let go of hope - and let despair and dark thoughts into her heart.

Because if Jason died, she suddenly wasn't sure life would still be worth living.

She would never be sure how long she waited. She tried to make Jason as comfortable as possible, even forcing herself to leave his side in order to get to the medical supplies in her pack and at least attempt to stop the bleeding. But in spite of her best efforts he was soon burning up with fever and his face was still tense, as if he was in a great deal of pain. Worse, his wound continued to bleed in spite of her best efforts. Anguish dulled her senses and made time seem to drag on forever. It felt like she spent hours watching him slowly deteriorate, but might have been mere minutes.

Somewhere amid the haze of fear and despair, she thought she heard the sound of footsteps. At first she thought she must have imagined it, but a few minutes later she couldn't deny it any longer. She really could hear someone approaching. She knew she should prepare for the worst, but she couldn't bring herself to move. As the sound drew closer she looked up, expecting Scorpina - or Zack, by some miracle - and was astonished to see Dulcea instead.

"Dulcea? What are you doing here?" she asked.

Dulcea ignored the quaver in her voice and came to kneel beside her. "What has happened here?"

Trini's eyes burned, but she had no more tears left to cry. "I don't know where Zack went," she said, aware that she was starting her story all out of order. She struggled to sort out her thoughts, to get the order of events right and not end up babbling hysterically. "But we were fighting Scorpina, and she stabbed Jason and he's been like this ever since. She said there was poison..."

After a long pause, Dulcea said, "I can try to heal him."

Trini had not dared to hope, but... "Please! Help him."

Dulcea was silent, sitting very still, for a long time. So long that Trini thought for a moment that something had gone wrong. But then she became aware of a stirring of air, like a small cyclone, gathering around them. It was just big enough to encompass the three of them, and gaining momentum every second.

Suddenly Dulcea's hands, which she had pressed flat on the ground, began to glow faintly blue. Trini watched in stunned silence as Dulcea placed one hand over Jason's heart and the other on his forehead. She had never seen such a direct and deliberate use of magic before, and it seemed both terrifying and enthralling.

At first she thought that this hope might simply be in vain, but then she noticed that Jason's wound had stopped leaking blood and that he seemed less feverish. Slowly, his pained expression eased and it began to seem that he was only sleeping and not suffering after all.

The moving air calmed. Dulcea withdrew her hands and the glow around them disappeared. "I have done all I can," she said, feeling for a pulse at Jason's neck. When she found what she was looking for, she sat back and sighed. "He should live."

Trini could see that he was breathing evenly and easily now, and nearly cried with relief. He was still alive! But fear still nagged at her. "Shouldn't he have woken up or something?"

"The poison was working on him for a long time," Dulcea confessed. "I could purge it from his body, but I could not reach him. It may take some time for him to come back."

Trini did not entirely understand what Dulcea meant. "But he will... come back, won't he?"

Dulcea stood up and looked down at her. "I may have healed him too late." Seeing how distressed this made Trini, she knelt again to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It could also be that he just needs help finding the way back. Call him, and he may return."

"How do I call him?"

"The same way you would call to him on any other day."

Trini frowned in consternation. Dulcea got up and this time she started to walk away. "Your friends will be needing me," she said without looking back at Trini. It suddenly seemed to Trini that Dulcea was exhausted, that it had somehow taken a lot out of her to heal Jason the way she had. "They had almost reached the tower when I left them."

"Of course. Go help them, if you can."

Dulcea glanced back. "Keep him safe."

Trini looked down at Jason, but he still showed no signs of awareness. "I..." When she looked back up, Dulcea was gone. "I will."

 

 

The 'statue' was definitely not a statue. Kimberly thought her heart was going to stop from surprise when the monstrous thing _moved_ as if in response to her voice. And it didn't just move, it moved toward them, drawing its sword as it came.

"What is that thing?" she asked.

"That's Goldar," Tommy said, as if that told her anything at all. Seeing her frustrated glance, he added, "One of Rita's top minions."

"I see. Um, any idea how we're going to get past him?"

Tommy shrugged. "Not really." He drew his sword. "But I'm pretty sure we can take him."

Only 'pretty sure'. Just what Kimberly wanted to hear. And from the look of it, Billy felt the same way.

But there was no time to argue or worry, because a second later Goldar was practically on top of them. Tommy put himself between Goldar and his two friends, easily turning the monster's powerful first strike aside. Goldar pulled back after that to sneer at him.

"So, the traitor returns," he growled.

Just the sound of his voice made Kimberly feel like she needed a bath.

"I was a traitor when I served Rita," Tommy responded. "But now I serve my true Princess. I'll never let Rita control me again!"

As the two armored warriors clashed again, they moved so quickly that Kimberly found the fight difficult to follow. She felt as if her heart was caught in her throat the entire time, and fear for Tommy practically overwhelmed her. One mistake was all Goldar would need, she was certain. She wondered if she ought to get her bow ready. If she could manage to distract Goldar, or even hit him... but the risk of hitting Tommy instead was too high. She couldn't take that chance.

So she waited, torn between horror and exhilaration, until she realized that Goldar had changed tactics. He flung Tommy aside with remarkable ease, but he didn't attempt to follow as the knight rolled to a stop and got back to his feet. He wasn't interested in Tommy anymore. He was...

Kimberly shrieked and fled as Goldar suddenly came after her, his sword slicing down where she had been standing a second before. Heart pounding from the near miss, she ran as fast as she could. She had never really understood her instructors' insistence on learning this particular trick, but now it all made sense: with practiced ease, she shrugged out of her travel pack, skidded to a halt long enough to pull her bow free and string it, and had her quiver on her back and her first arrow nocked almost before Goldar realized he had missed. With her arrow firmly targeted on him, she continued to back away.

_"There is energy everywhere, but only a select few are able to harness its power. You have that ability." _Remembering Dulcea's lessons, Kimberly wondered. Maybe she didn't have to just run away. Maybe... She slowed her breathing, made each step as deliberate as possible, and closed her eyes. She felt the energy in the frigid air that whirled around her, felt the strength of the stone beneath her feet, and pulled all of that inside and made it her own, just as Dulcea had taught her.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Goldar through a sheen of pink light. He was closer than she'd expected, and approaching fast.

For a moment she panicked, thinking she was still too much of a novice and too slow to have tried using magic when she could have just run away and let Tommy handle it. Then Goldar opened his big, stupid mouth. "I serve Rita Repulsa, the greatest sorceress to ever live! You'll never defeat me with such puny magic," he laughed.

Kimberly scowled. _Excuse me? Puny?_ The pink flames that had surrounded her focused suddenly, drawing in to wreath her hands before spreading to engulf her bow and arrow. Goldar barely had time to look surprised before Kimberly snarled, "Wanna bet?" and loosed her arrow.

The arrow flew true and hit the target exactly, piercing through Goldar's left eye before exploding in a blaze of pink flames. There was no way he could have survived; the explosion took half of his head with it. As Goldar toppled over, she could see Tommy and Billy staring at her in surprise. They had seen her practicing with Dulcea, of course, but during those sessions Dulcea had only been teaching her the basics. She had never attempted something like this.

"That'll teach him to call me puny," she muttered into the awkward silence.

"That was amazing, Kim," Tommy said, breaking out in a wide grin. "With power like that, we shouldn't have much trouble with Rita."

But Kimberly barely heard what he was saying. Pain lanced through her head. She cried out and dropped her bow in favor of clamping her hands over her head, as if that could help. She recognized this pain. It was the same pain she had felt several times during her training sessions, the result of pushing her magic too far too quickly.

Tommy was by her side in an instant and Billy was not far behind. "Kim!"

"What is it?" Billy asked.

She waved them off. "Give me some air. I'll be okay."

And a few minutes later, she was. It was extremely difficult to focus when the pain in her head made it hard to even see, but she carefully grounded herself again and let the earth take the power she had raised but failed to use. She was actually surprised by how much extra energy she had been able to pull in; she had never had such good results during her training. As she felt it draining from her body, her head felt lighter and the pain faded, but fatigue took its place. She hated to disappoint Tommy, but it would be very difficult for her to do that again any time soon.

"Okay," she said, and realized with chagrin that she was only still on her feet because Tommy was supporting her. "I think I'm okay now."

"Are you sure?" Tommy asked.

"Yes," she assured him. To prove her point, she stepped away from him then, and to her delight she was able to do so without swaying or swooning. Someday, she knew, she would be able to do magic without side effects like this. If only she had had more time to study with Dulcea first, she might have learned. But she had not. She had to work with what little she actually knew and what she could successfully improvise, and hope she didn't hurt herself or any of her friends in the process.

She took a couple more experimental steps forward with no ill effects, even stooping to retrieve her bow, then looked back to Tommy for approval. "See? Just fine."

Tommy seemed more concerned by Rita's tower than Kimberly's progress. Following his gaze, she saw that the tower's windows had started to emit green smoke, which fell slowly and clung to the ground, almost oozing toward them.

"Maybe it's just me," she said, her voice sounding far too loud in the sudden eerie silence, "but that does not look good."

As she spoke, the tower doors swung slowly open as if to beckon them inside.

 

 

Jason came awake with a sense of dizzy confusion. He did not remember actually losing consciousness, but he must have. One moment he was in a very dark place, and then the next time he opened his eyes he was lying on his back with his head cradled in Trini's lap.

Everything seemed out of focus, but he realized quickly that this was reality and the dark place before had been a dream. A very vivid dream, where he had encountered Scorpina again and been subjected to her whims in a way that was half erotic and half torture. But Scorpina had disappeared suddenly, just when he thought she was going to kill him, leaving him to wander around in darkness. But then he had heard a voice calling to him... Trini's voice. Somehow, following the sound of her voice had brought him back here.

"Trini," he managed to say. He sounded awful, like he'd just come back from the brink of death. Maybe he had.

"You're awake," she murmured, eyes widening. "I can't believe it. You're awake!"

"Heard you calling me," he tried to explain. He felt so damnably _weak_. He couldn't even move; it had been a tremendous effort just to open his eyes.

"Oh, thank goodness," she said, her voice trembling slightly. Tears rolled down her face.

"Don't cry," he told her.

"Don't cry? You almost _died!_"

For a moment he thought she was going to yell at him or, worse, lecture him. But instead she just furiously wiped the tears away and glared at him.

"I'm sorry," he said. It was only half a lie. He wasn't sorry at all that he'd put himself in harm's way to save her life, but he was sorry that it had upset her so much. He hadn't meant to hurt her. He'd actually meant to do exactly the opposite, only it hadn't quite worked out like he'd hoped.

"Just promise me you won't try anything like that again," she said at last.

He wasn't willing to make that promise, so instead he just said, "Yeah, I know, I've got to learn to trust that ring of yours to keep you safe."

She nodded, trying not to smile.

Suddenly Jason realized that something was missing. "Wait, where's Zack?"

Trini closed her eyes and grimaced slightly. "I don't know. I think... I think he went after Scorpina."

That was what he had feared. He tried to sit up, but his body wouldn't obey him. He was pleased, however, to note that moving wasn't as impossible as it had felt a short time ago. Bit by bit, his strength was returning.

"Oh no," Trini cautioned. "You're not going after him."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Jason muttered, trying again with only a bit more success. "I just want to sit up and take a look around."

She looked like she did not quite believe him, but she helped him up anyway. He was pleased to find that once he was sitting he could stay that way, rather than just falling down again. He still felt very, very weak, but now he could definitely feel that some of his strength was beginning to return. It was slow going, however. He was just going to have to be patient.

"So, Zack's gone, and there's been no sign of Scorpina?"

Trini shook her head. "I haven't seen anybody, except Dulcea."

"Dulcea..."

"She cured you from the poison and healed your wound. Then she just took off again."

Dulcea... That was a good sign. It meant they still had a chance at finding a way to meet up with Tommy and the others. If they could make it that far. In that moment he made up his mind to try.

"Help me up."

"Jason..." she protested, but she knew from years of experience that arguing with him would only make him more obstinate. "...Fine. We can see if you can stand. And _then_ we'll decide what we're going to do."

She sounded exasperated, but she was smart enough to get everything ready in case he was able to stand, in which case she knew he would want to keep going. He waited patiently while she went through all of their packs and sorted out what would be most necessary. She stowed the medical supplies, a small amount of food, and a change of clothes for each of them (and Zack) into her pack, then tested the weight. They would just have to come back for the rest later, if they could.

She seemed especially determined to make sure he did not aggravate his injuries, so he allowed her to put his right arm in a sling that she'd set aside earlier, even though he no longer felt particularly injured. If it made her feel better, he would go along with it.

When she had decided that everything was ready, she helped him get to his feet. He was not strong enough yet to do it himself, so it took a bit of effort on her part, but they managed to get him upright. To his frustration, he felt lightheaded and lost his balance almost immediately. Trini steadied him, looking remarkably unimpressed by his progress.

"Maybe you should sit back down," she suggested.

"I'll be fine," he muttered. But when he tried to take a step forward, he found that it was extremely difficult to keep from tumbling forward. As if the poison hadn't been bad enough, it was really throwing him off-balance to be unable to use his right arm.

"At least slow down a little," Trini urged. "There's no rush."

They both knew there was, but that she just did not want him to push himself too far too quickly. So far as he was concerned, he would have time to rest up later. Right now Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy – or Zack, wherever he was - might need their help.

"Come here," he said. Trini stepped closer, confusion on her face, and he slung his good arm over her shoulders before testing his balance again. She was shorter than he was, but not short enough for it to be awkward, and the added weight did not seem to be more than she could bear. He was pretty sure that, with her help, he could manage not to fall flat on his face. "Better," he decided. "Now let's go."

She looked at him skeptically. "Go? Jason, are you sure? You can't even walk on your own yet."

"Yeah, I'm sure," he said. He knew he couldn't let this setback stop him. He had to keep pushing forward, or he would feel - would _be_ \- completely useless. "Pick a path, the one Dulcea came from, if you can remember. We still need to get up to that tower."


	22. Out of the Darkness

Zack never expected Scorpina to run after defeating Jason. The fight against her had seemed so hopeless; she was simply too strong and too fast for him or Trini to hope to beat her, and she had poison on her side, too. But instead of taking them down with Jason, she had turned and run. And, aware that there was nothing he could do for Jason now anyway, Zack had given chase.

It did not take him long to figure out why she'd fled. She was bleeding, and pretty heavily, where one of Trini's knives had managed to nick her. She must not have been expecting much resistance, thinking herself to be all powerful, and the injury must have freaked her out as a result. Knowing that - and knowing that his weapons must be able to hurt Scorpina as much as Trini's had - Zack was more determined than ever to catch her and avenge his fallen friend. It seemed like the least he could do.

But Scorpina was fast. Damnably fast. She was out of sight in the maze almost before he knew it. He could follow the trail of blood drops she left behind, but he knew with an uneasy feeling in his gut that he would never catch her unless she wanted to be caught. He couldn't hope to match her supernatural speed, and she would be well aware of that fact.

After a while, he slowed and grew more cautious. The blood drops had dwindled into a thin trail as Scorpina's wound healed and stopped bleeding, and he could not hear so much as a single sound from up ahead in the maze. She could be lying in wait to ambush him around any corner. He wondered briefly if he ought to turn back, but he thought she might try to come back and finish what she'd started if he did not make sure she couldn't. So he kept going even in the face of growing misgivings, but it wasn't long before the blood drops ceased and the trail went cold.

He knelt to inspect the ground, but there were no footprints even though the path was covered with gravel and loose rocks. Despite how impossible it seemed, Scorpina had disappeared without a trace.

He went a bit further in the direction he had been going, looking for any sign that someone had passed by recently. There was nothing. It was not far before another path crossed the one he was on, leaving three possible options for Scorpina to have taken, and none of them bore even the slightest footprint on the path.

Frowning and frustrated, and very well aware that Scorpina could be hiding just past that next turn in the path or might already be heading back by another route to finish off his friends while he wasted time here, Zack struggled to decide what to do. His gut instinct was to keep hunting for her, but he knew that if Jason couldn't pull through, Trini was going to need his support. So after a short internal debate, Zack turned around and headed back the way he had come, keeping a careful ear out all the while for any suspicious sounds. It would have been a perfect opportunity for Scorpina to ambush him, but no ambush ever came. Scorpina was gone as if she had never existed at all.

Following the trail of Scorpina's blood and his own footprints, he made his way gradually back to the clearing where he had left Trini and Jason. To his astonishment, there was no sign of his friends. He could clearly see where the fight with Scorpina had taken place; some of Jason's blood still tinged the rocky ground a deep crimson. His pack and Jason's had been opened and abandoned, while Trini's was missing. But he was far more concerned by the absence of Jason and Trini.

For a moment Zack was helpless to do anything but stare in confusion. Had Jason somehow managed to beat Scorpina's poison? The situation had looked pretty hopeless when he left. But there weren't any signs of a struggle, and in fact, upon closer inspection he could see where his friends had made their way out of the clearing. He headed in that direction for a closer look.

Jason's steps were uneven, he would almost say awkward, and very close to Trini's. It looked a lot like he'd been able to walk around only because she was supporting him. Zack frowned. "What the heck were you thinking, Jase?" he muttered out loud.

And since catching up was the only way he was going to find out what idiocy was going through Jason's head at this particular moment, he turned back long enough to retrieve his pack (even though Trini had already gone through it and taken everything of potential value), then took off into the maze, following the path his friends had taken.

 

 

Tommy stared at the open door and sensed Kimberly and Billy tense up behind him. He knew as well as they did that this was a trap. But he also knew there was no other way into that tower, and Rita certainly wasn't going to come out as long as she held the higher ground. They had no choice: they had to go in if they wanted to defeat her, no matter how dangerous it might be.

He knew they had to go in sooner or later... but without Dulcea or Jason and the others, he had a lot of misgivings about it. He was bound and determined to have his revenge on Rita, and to stop her from ever hurting Kimberly or anyone else ever again, but he wasn't completely sure that determination would be enough. After all, Rita had magic on her side. All he had was Erë's protection, and whatever help his friends could still give him.

Even just remembering the pain and fatigue on Kimberly's face after her last attempt at using her magic made Tommy's heart beat faster with fear. He hoped against hope that she would not have to put that kind of strain on herself in the battle to come. He couldn't bear the thought of her being injured, or causing harm to herself, for his sake.

"Come on," he said, brushing his fears aside as he led the way forward. This was not the time to be cautious. They were on the threshold of the enemy's fortress; now was the time to be _bold_.

Kimberly hesitated. "What about Dulcea? And Jason and the others..."

To Tommy's surprise, Billy piped up with, "Time may be of the essence, your Highness. You heard what Dulcea said before her departure. We should proceed, but with caution."

Kimberly did not look pleased, but she did not offer any more arguments, either. She simply gave a terse, unhappy nod.

"Let's do this," Tommy said, trying to be encouraging in spite of the way everything seemed to be going against them. "Once we get into the tower, be very careful. Rita's probably got traps and spells on everything inside."

It was dark as pitch inside the tower; the windows were all covered and not a single candle was lit. Tommy was suddenly glad he'd had a month to learn the tower inside and out while he was under Rita's control, but having that knowledge to fall back on did not bring him much comfort. The tower itself was magic, he knew, and it was entirely possible that nothing would be as he remembered it.

They moved quickly through the small entryway, though nothing fell down on them from the murder holes in the ceiling. In the large central chamber of the tower's first floor, Tommy felt along the wall, seeking and eventually finding a torch. For reasons unknown to him, Rita had always preferred using open torches and candles instead of lanterns in spite of the vast quantities of flammable material housed in her tower. It had irritated him before, but it worked in his favor now. Torch in hand, he returned to where Kimberly and Billy were waiting by the entryway. Almost as soon as he had done so, the great tower doors swung shut, leaving them in total darkness.

"Kim, do you think you can light this thing?" he asked, half to distract her from the shock and fear caused by the sudden lack of light, and half because he wasn't sure they could afford to waste time looking for fire-starters in their packs.

"I can try." She sounded uncertain. "Give me a minute."

It took an alarmingly long time for the now-familiar pink glow of magic to begin to surround her hands. By its faint light he could see the way her face was tense with concentration as she touched a finger to the tip of the torch and set it alight. Even by the flames' golden glow, her face looked ashen.

"Are you okay?"

"It would appear that the use of her magic is placing a strain upon her," Billy commented. He caught hold of Kimberly's wrist with one hand and felt for a pulse. Tommy left him to it, hoping that Billy knew what he was doing, and that the result wouldn't be dire news.

But Kimberly was having none of it. She pulled her hand away from Billy and set her jaw in that particularly stubborn way of hers, the way that meant she was not going to take 'no' or 'it's too risky' for an answer. "I'm fine," she protested. "It just feels kinda like there's a huge weight pressing down on me. Like something's trying to... block me."

"It's probably one of Rita's spells," Tommy realized aloud. He knew he really should have thought of that before he asked her to try magic. "Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

She met his gaze with eyes made dark by apprehension, and nodded.

With that matter settled, at least for now, they began to cautiously explore the first floor of the tower. Aside from the entryway, the first floor was comprised of one large room. The thick stone walls were lined with shelves, all filled with ancient tomes. The ceiling was low, made of heavy beams carved from some sort of dark wood. A narrow stone staircase curled up the wall on one side; Tommy knew from experience that the stair went all the way to the top of the tower. He wondered where they would find Rita... waiting at the very top or lurking in the shadows somewhere along the way, where they might least expect her?

Tommy had a sudden mental image of Rita standing over her scrying pool on the tower's third floor, watching them with eyes as keen as a hawk's. He suppressed a shiver and forced himself to start climbing the stairs rather than wonder why she wasn't doing anything to stop them from coming for her. His every instinct was now on high alert, waiting for the trap to spring up around him.

He set one foot on the bottom step, then the other, and still nothing happened. The tower was as ominously still and silent as ever. He glanced back to Kimberly and Billy. "Come on. Let's stay close. We don't want to give her a chance to separate us. His friends hurried after him as best they could. The steps were uneven in height and spacing, so they had to be careful or risk falling.

The tower's second level was as dark as the first and, in spite of their painstaking search, it was just as empty. It had once served as Finster's monster-making lab, and although there was no sign of Finster himself, most of the equipment appeared as if it had only been abandoned moments ago. A large metal cage hung from the ceiling; that was new. Tommy was not sure he wanted to know what Rita intended to do with that cage.

Tommy started up the stairs again before Billy had even finished investigating the lab. He was certain, now, that he would find Rita on the third floor, just as he had envisioned her a few moments before.

"Tommy, wait!" Kimberly called.

He only paused for a moment, but it was enough for her to catch up. Billy followed a bit reluctantly.

As they climbed toward the third floor, their torch guttered and died, leaving them in utter blackness. On the uneven stairs, it was a recipe for trouble: behind him, Billy tripped and stumbled forward into Kimberly, who nearly toppled into Tommy. He steadied her for a moment, then handed her the torch. He wanted his hands free in case they were about to be attacked. And on second thought, he wanted Kim to be able to use her bow if necessary. "Give this to Billy."

Listening closely, he could hear her shift to hand the torch to Billy, and had to wonder: where was Rita, and why wasn't she doing anything? She had obviously made the torch go out, but she hadn't done anything else. It was nerve-wracking not to know what she was up to. He was half expecting to run into some sort of gigantic monster at any moment.

And then he felt the gentle pressure of Kimberly's hand on his arm, cutting through the haze of apprehension. He took that hand in his and guided her up the rest of the stairs and onto the third floor landing. Moving up those last few stairs was more difficult than any part of the journey so far. It was like walking through thick mud – they had to fight for each inch.

But at last they stood on the third floor, with Billy just behind them. Rita was so close, the sensation of her power made Tommy's skin prickle. "Kim, can you and Billy try to get the torch lit again while I-"

Suddenly the entire chamber flared to life, a dozen or so large torches that lined the room bursting into flame all at once. Tommy squinted against the sudden brightness, and caught sight of the dark figure of Rita at the opposite end of the room an instant before an extremely strong gust of wind nearly knocked him off his feet. Bracing himself against the onslaught, he realized with horror that it was not truly directed at him at all, but at Kimberly. It caught the Princess full force and would have sent her tumbling back down the stairs if Billy had not hurriedly pulled her out of the way, ending up squashed between the Princess and the wall in the process.

"Hey!" Tommy shouted, drawing his sword and charging toward Rita. "Leave her alone! I'm the one you want -"

Rita's laughter cut him off and stopped him dead in his tracks. "Idiot, it was never you I wanted. It was _her_. And you brought her right to me, like the good little knight I always knew you were."

Tommy paled. He'd been so happy to have Kimberly - the _real_ Kimberly - at his side on the journey that he had never stopped to think about just how much danger he might be putting her in. He had conveniently forgotten the threat that Rita posed to her. But in the end, that only strengthened his resolve. "I won't let you have her."

Rita smiled slightly, wickedness and power glinting in her eyes. "You cannot stop me."

"Then I'll die trying."

Behind him, Kimberly protested, "Tommy, don't. We'll find a way to beat her. Together."

Her words gave him a moment's pause. Rita's magic was strong, but there had to be some way to stop it. With his brawn, Kimberly's magic, and Billy's brain, there had to be something they could do. He couldn't have come all this way only to be defeated at the last moment, giving Rita everything she wanted.

He couldn't let her have Kimberly.

Rita's smile turned into a smirk. "I may not be able to use my magic on you directly," she muttered, "but I can still affect everything - and everyone - around you. So don't think for a minute you're safe just because a dragon blessed you."

She waved her magic wand and the floor beneath him turned into a trap door, which promptly opened, threatening to drop him back down to the level below. Tommy was barely able to leap to safety, but the next thing he knew the massive bookshelf beside him was toppling over, ready to crush him. He managed to escape from that, too, but then she hurled a table at him, followed swiftly by a bolt of what looked like lightning. He blocked that with the small shield on his left arm, and was mildly horrified at the feel of electricity coursing through his armor... but thanks to the dragon's blessing the lightning merely dissipated without harming him.

As Rita turned slightly to direct her next attack at his friends, the room suddenly filled with a bright pink glow. A quick glance over his shoulder told Tommy that Kimberly had summoned a protective shield, which resembled a large glowing pink bubble around her and Billy, just like Dulcea had taught her to do. The lightning reflected harmlessly off of it, sending sparks showering as it crashed into the stone wall behind them and the ceiling above.

_Good girl_, Tommy thought, feeling rather ridiculously pleased that Rita's magic had yet to best Kimberly's. Rita might have been able to slow her down, but that wasn't going to stop Kimberly.

"Oh, you think you're so good with magic," Rita groused, half to herself. "Let's see how good you really are!"

She spread her arms in a swift, sweeping motion, and when she was done the tower walls had crumbled away. Impossibly, the staircase and the ceiling above remained in place as if nothing had changed. Without the walls to keep them at bay, icy mountain winds whipped through the tower, strong enough to throw Tommy and the others off balance although Rita showed no sign of being affected at all.

"Go back downstairs," Tommy shouted to Kimberly and Billy. He could barely hear himself over the rushing wind, and knew he couldn't afford to take his eyes off Rita even to watch out for them. He needed them to get to safety. "I'll handle Rita alone!"

"We can't," Kimberly said a moment later. Her voice sounded strained, tense, terrified. "I don't get it. There's nothing here, but I can't get through!"

"You passed through the sealing spell on the way here, idiots," Rita sneered. "None of you can leave until I allow it."

Tommy remembered the strange sensation he had felt as he pushed his way up the stairs and onto this level; that must have been the sealing spell she was talking about. Only instead of sealing them out, like he would have expected, it had sealed them in. And unless they could find some other way to break the spell, there was no way out except to defeat Rita. And since she had been storing up her magic until she could trap them, Tommy didn't think that was very likely to happen. If Dulcea had been with them, she might have had some ideas, but the rest of them did not know enough about magic to even guess at how to break the spell.

"Guess I'll just have to make this quick then," Tommy decided, hoping he could back those bold words up.

Rita had other ideas. She let him charge at her, blocking his attack with her magic wand. The wand looked like it was made out of very old wood, but his sword barely dented it. She twisted the wand, forcing him to let go of his weapon, then hurled him across the tower with strength that seemed impossible for a woman so small. Tommy landed hard, banging his head on the floor and rolling awkwardly toward the edge of the tower.

Dazed, it was all he could do to cling to the tower's edge. It seemed as if an agonizing eternity passed before everything stopped spinning and he could haul himself back up. When he finally made it, he was greeted by a horrifying sight. Rita held Billy by the neck and they were both surrounded by greenish-white light that grew more green as seconds slipped past. It looked almost as if Billy was growing older and more worn by the second.

Tommy closed his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing. But when he opened his eyes again, things had only grown worse. Billy lay discarded on the floor, empty-eyed and inexplicably aged. And there was no longer just one Rita, but many, and they had Kimberly surrounded. And any moment, he knew, Rita would begin to suck the life - and power - out of her, using it to fuel her magic just as she had done with Billy.

He couldn't let that happen, and he had to act quickly to stop it. The trouble was, he had no idea which Rita was the real one, or if they all were. And if he made the wrong move now, it could be the end for all of them.

He hated feeling that kind of pressure, but tried not to let it bother him. Instead, he quickly scrutinized the different Ritas, trying to see if one looked more real, or somehow more familiar, than any of the others. Unfortunately, they all seemed to be identical. He would just have to guess and hope for the best.

In the end he got to his feet, grabbed his sword, and lunged for the Rita that seemed to be standing closest to Kimberly. Surely she would position herself as close to her intended target as possible...

But as it turned out, he'd guessed wrong. He had aimed for a Rita that was only an illusion. His sword passed through her as if through empty air, then the illusion flickered and faded away. The other Ritas cackled gleefully.

The real Rita was standing just to his right and she caught him by the neck just as he realized his mistake, squeezing so hard that her clawlike fingernails dug painfully into his flesh. Tommy struggled against her, wishing he'd thought to wear armor with a gorget, but she had woven some spell into the air around him and it held him immobile. Her magic burned where her hand gripped his neck, warring with Erë's protective magic.

"No one betrays me! You will be mine again or you will die," Rita snarled. Her eyes began to glow a fierce, bright green, and he could see dark smoke and smell charred flesh where her touch was actually burning him. And yet in spite of the pain and horror he felt, he could barely move. He knew now, without a doubt, that this was why Rita had chosen to simply lie in wait. She'd been saving her power for one last try, not just to capture Kimberly but to reclaim him as well. She was trying to overpower a dragon's magic.

He watched Rita raise her other arm, magic wand in hand and glowing brightly, toward the sky. Heart pounding, Tommy feared for a moment that she would somehow manage to harness enough power to get past Erë's protective magic... but the next instant an arrow lodged itself firmly in the magic wand, just below the crescent-shaped tip. Rita released Tommy, staggering backward and turning frantic eyes on her wand.

Tommy instinctively touched a hand to his neck, though he could not feel any damage through the armored gauntlet he wore. Kimberly was at his side in an instant, and together they watched as cracks fissured out from the hole the arrow had made in Rita's wand. Brilliant green light shone forth from the cracks, which spread not only down the wand's handle but into Rita herself. Tommy could feel the change in the air; Rita was losing control of her magic.

"What have you done to me?" she demanded. "Oh, my beautiful, precious magic wand!"

In spite of her frantic attempts to control the rapidly escaping magic, the cracks continued to spread and the green glow grew brighter and brighter. The sorceress's eyes went wide and just before those too turned green, she uttered a single ominous-sounding sentence. The words were of no language Tommy could understand, but he knew instinctively that he had just been cursed.

But that curse was the last act that Rita Repulsa would ever perform. Rather than risk giving her a chance to somehow regain control over her powers, Tommy lopped her head off. It only took a single swing of his sword.

He had just enough time to think that that had been a rather anti-climactic end to the entire affair when Rita's body suddenly - and forcefully - exploded.

The entire tower shook from the force of it. The walls that had vanished remained gone, though the sealing spell that had trapped him and his friends on this floor faded quickly away. The scrying pool's basin cracked, sending water flowing out over everything in a strangely warm tide, and enormous bookshelves toppled, scattering ancient books and loose pages everywhere. Tommy pulled Kimberly close, certain that the entire tower was about to come down, and intending to shield her with his own body if necessary. But after a few moments of pulse-pounding terror the dust began to settle, and the tower remained standing.

Tommy risked a glance around when things finally felt steady again, but the next thing he knew Kimberly had yanked his helmet off and was kissing him. It took him by surprise at first, how bold she was, but he wasn't going to question a lucky break. He went with the flow, kissing her back eagerly, pulling her tight against him and wishing that they didn't have armor separating them.

She pulled away from him for a moment to breathlessly whisper, "You did it."

"We did it," he corrected with a grin. "You were the one that thought to shoot at her."

After allowing them a few moments of self-indulgence, Billy cleared his throat loudly enough to pull their focus away from each other. "It would appear that our companions have arrived," he observed calmly. Tommy got the impression that this was not the first time he had tried to get their attention, but he was pleased to see that Billy at least seemed to have regained his health since Rita's death.

Kimberly looked a bit perturbed by the interruption, but all it took was one look outside to send her practically flying down the stairs. And Tommy wasn't far behind her.

Their friends were waiting for them outside at the base of the tower. Even Jason had made it, although it looked like he was only managing to stay on his feet by leaning on Trini.

As soon as they were free of the tower, Kimberly flung her arms around Jason's neck with a triumphant cry of "You're alive!" while Trini wobbled under the additional burden of Kimberly's weight. Seeing that three of their four companions looked a bit worse for wear, Tommy kept his distance and simply greeted them all with a smile.

"Jason, you okay?" he asked. He noted with some surprise that the maze that had surrounded the tower was gone. Now it was nothing more than an old, half ruined tower on a normal mountainside.

"Been better, but I'll live," Jason admitted.

"Glad to hear it," Tommy said. A thought occurred to him. "Hey, how come you four were just waiting out here? Why didn't you come and help us?"

It was Dulcea that explained. "The way was blocked. But it would seem that the barrier is gone now..."

"She's dead, isn't she?" Zack asked. "Rita, I mean. That's what that light was. That's why the invisible wall's gone."

Tommy nodded grimly while Kimberly smiled. "We did it. She's never going to bother us again."

 

 

Billy was intensely curious about what had happened to Jason, Trini, and Zack prior to the battle with Rita, but alas, he knew that tale would have to wait. The tower was a mess. There was no getting around it: they needed to take stock of the situation before they could dare to relax. There might very well be monsters or traps lurking in the tower even after Rita's demise.

Sticking together, they went through each of the tower's many floors in turn. The place was practically ransacked. It was obvious that it had been in disarray for years, and the battle had not helped matters. But by and large, they found nothing that was particularly dangerous in their investigations; however, the third floor was still missing its exterior walls (a feat which mystified Billy), and the bodies of two more of Rita's monstrous minions were lying dead on the upper floors. Apparently they had expired when their mistress did, or else she had harvested their life energy the way she had tried to do to him.

Dulcea and Tommy gave a running commentary during the tour, but Billy barely heard. Just looking at the piles of books, some of which were quite ancient, and haphazard stacks of boxes, he knew he was going to relish the challenge of sorting everything out. It was as if all of his apprehensions had evaporated at once now that he had books to read and artifacts to catalog.

He was going to have his work cut out for him organizing to have all of this transported back home, but he had already decided that every last piece would be worth salvaging. With any luck, Rita's stash would help fill in the gaps in the archive's collection. To judge by the age of some of the volumes, it might even contain books of which they had no previous knowledge. It was a tantalizing prospect that allowed him to disregard the fact that a sorceress had nearly sucked the very life out of him not so long ago. He was able to pretend that Trini's eyes were not red-rimmed from crying and that Jason's life - and his own - had nearly been the price for such treasures.

He forgot how helpless and useless he had felt during the battle, when Rita had so effortlessly stolen the very life from his body (and he had not even remembered to use the protective magic ring Kimberly had given him, much less thought to fight back), because in this way he _could_ be useful. Proper reclamation of Rita's collected knowledge would not simply benefit this small group of heroes in the current moment, but had the potential to be of value to the entire kingdom for many years to come. It was the least he could do to celebrate his miraculous survival.

In spite of the late hour and the overwhelming fatigue he felt, he was ready to begin cataloging and organizing the entire tower right at this very moment. His friends seemed equally enthused at first, but it was not long before they began to wander off. Tommy and Kimberly slipped away first, and it amused Billy to note that they went off (rather unsubtly) together. Having seen Kimberly's reaction to their victory earlier in the evening, he could wager a guess as to how those two intended to spend their night, but he did not begrudge them their happiness.

Destroying Rita was all that had mattered to Tommy and Kimberly. Now that the sorceress was dead and Tommy redeemed, they could begin the next chapter of their lives, the chapter that would eventually unite them as husband and wife. And as far as he was concerned, they deserved every moment of future happiness that might come their way.

Shortly after Tommy and Kimberly headed off for the night, Dulcea uncovered an enormous white crystal that had barely avoided being crushed by a toppled bookshelf. It was attached to a long silver chain, as if it were intended to be worn around the neck. Billy thought it a rather gaudy affectation, then jumped in surprise when the swirling cloudiness of the crystal suddenly coalesced into a form reminiscent of a human face.

Worse, the thing _spoke_.

"Dulcea," it said, more moan than address. Haltingly, it continued, "I did not expect to see you again."

Something about that voice was familiar to Billy. A moment later, Dulcea hit upon exactly what it was that seemed so familiar. "Zordon!"

Billy, Jason, and the others immediately clustered around Dulcea, all vying for a glimpse of the long-missing sorcerer. Now that Dulcea had said it, Billy could definitely see the resemblance in the face in the crystal.

"Zordon, what happened? Are you okay?" Jason asked.

Seeming stronger than he had a moment ago, Zordon confirmed, "I am unharmed."

"Are you... trapped in there?" Trini asked, her voice quiet with horror. "How do we get you out?"

"My spirit is trapped in the crystal," Zordon explained. "And without a spirit to inhabit it, my corporeal form has temporarily faded."

Jason and Zack looked confused; Trini quietly translated for them. In the meantime, Billy looked to Dulcea for answers. But Dulcea was silent. Her eyes were half closed with concentration, her attention focused solely on the crystal.

Even knowing as little as he did about magic, Billy could guess what she was trying to do. "Can you free him?" he asked.

She shook her head and said nothing, but sighed a moment later and shook her head again. "I cannot free you, Zordon. This magic is... unknown to me."

Dulcea looked aghast at the prospect of magic beyond her skill, but Zordon's ghostly face simply regarded her placidly. "There must be a way. The solution may be in this very tower, or it may be something Rita learned before she was imprisoned here."

"Zordon..."

"There is currently no threat to my life. I am simply trapped," he assured her.

Dulcea was plainly displeased with her inability to free Zordon, but there was nothing to be done about it except search for another solution. With that in mind, Billy and the others spent much of the night going through the tower's various floors in search of items of interest. But as it grew later they began to slip away one by one, to catch some much needed sleep. First Zack, and then Trini and eventually Jason as well.

It must have been getting close to daybreak before Billy realized just how late it was, and that his body would need recuperation if he were to continue his investigation. It was only then that he realized just how dark and quiet the tower had become now that his companions had all bedded down for the night, save for Dulcea who was still at work on the level below.

Knowing that his friends would need him in the morning, when they would be creating a plan of action, he went in search of a place to sleep. He found his friends, or most of them at least, on the fourth floor of the tower. They had already determined that it was in no imminent danger of collapse, despite the missing walls of the floor below, so it seemed as good a choice as any.

Zack was standing guard, an amused look on his face, outside of a closed off chamber where it turned out Trini and Jason were sleeping. In spite of Zack's amusement, it was immediately obvious to Billy that nothing untoward had occurred - or was likely to.

The room was a jumbled mess of broken and toppled furniture, strewn with yet more books and strange artifacts, but someone had cleared out an area in the center that was large enough for several people to stretch out in. Trini was curled up in her cloak to one side, the folded up bundle of her extra clothes serving as her pillow, to all appearances sound asleep. Jason was lying on his back nearby, his head pillowed on his hands as he stared at the ceiling. His sword arm had been in a sling earlier, at Trini's insistence, but it did not surprise Billy in the least to see that he had discarded it at the first opportunity.

He glanced over as Billy walked in.

"Do you mind?" Billy asked quietly.

Jason shook his head and closed his eyes.

Billy found a halfway comfortable spot next to Jason, pulled his cloak around him, and fell fast asleep.

 

 

No matter how he tried to relax, Jason could not sleep. After an interminable amount of time spent sandwiched with Trini sleeping on one side and Billy on the other, he gave up and went to wander around the tower. He knew Zack was going to worry about him now, but at least this way he could keep an eye out for trouble instead of lying uselessly in the dark hoping for sleep.

It wasn't long before he stumbled upon Dulcea, going through the numerous boxes that littered the second floor of Rita's tower. The crystal in which Zordon was imprisoned hung around her neck, glowing faintly in the gloom. There was currently no sign of Zordon within its murky depths. Jason wasn't sure if that was a good or bad sign.

"Mind if I help?" he asked, as much to distract himself as to get Dulcea's attention. "I couldn't sleep."

She glanced over briefly, then went back to her work. "Of course."

"Don't you ever need to sleep?"

"Not as you mortals would understand."

She was like Zordon then, he realized. She might look human, but she was a creature of magic. He moved over to see what she was working on. "Anything I can help with?"

She motioned to a pile of dusty but unopened boxes to her left. "I have not started on those yet, if you would like to open them."

For a while they worked in silence, save for the sounds of the boxes opening. Most had latches, though many of those were rusted and had to be broken open, but some of the boxes could only be opened by breaking them. At first it was easy to focus on this task, but since most of the boxes turned out to only hold pieces of rolled up old parchment covered in writing he could not read, Jason began to lose interest. He forged on anyway because it was better than sitting in the dark and trying in vain to sleep.

Finally, Dulcea broke the silence. "I am glad to see you doing so well."

He paused in his work for a moment, staring at the box in his hands. "Thanks, I guess. Scorpina really did a number on me, didn't she?"

"She has that habit, yes."

"That poison she used... I've never even heard of anything like it."

"It was a magical poison," Dulcea murmured. "Did she tell you what it was called?"

Jason blinked in surprise, wondering if Dulcea knew that Scorpina had told him the name of the poison only after he was already unconscious and suffering from its effects. "She called it 'Sweet Dreams'." He could feel his blood heat a little, even now, remembering just how sweet those dreams had been. Sweet, but deadly, if Dulcea had not showed up to save him when she did.

"Sweet Dreams," she mused. "You should have let Trini take that hit."

"And let her be crippled or killed?" he demanded, rage beginning to boil within him at the very thought of letting Trini be hurt in his stead.

"No. I say you should have let her take the hit because of the extra protection afforded to her by her armor and her sex. Sweet Dreams is designed for use against men. It is generally far less potent against a woman."

That gave him pause. "So you're saying..."

"Trini would have been in far less immediate danger than either you or Zack."

He did not like hearing that. The simple fact of the matter was that allowing Trini to be hurt when he could prevent it had been unacceptable, even though it might have meant dying in her place. He refused to believe that saving Trini had been a mistake; everything had worked out all right in the end, and that was what mattered.

"It is noble of you to wish to protect her," Dulcea said. "But she is stronger than you know."

"In my dream," he confessed, without really knowing why he was admitting this, "she turned into Scorpina."

"Whatever you saw, do not let the visions trouble you. They were put into your mind by the poison, and there is nothing more to them."

Easy for her to say. He lapsed into silence then and ignored the next few small boxes, which no doubt contained more cryptic parchments that only Billy would appreciate, and went for a larger box instead. It was about as wide and high as his hand, but quite long. And it contained something much heavier than parchment. He pried the end off the box and tipped it so the object inside slid out.

It was an ornate scabbard. Despite the obvious age of the box that had contained it, it looked newly made. Jason turned it over in his hands a couple of times, admiring its craftsmanship. Whatever blade this had belonged to must have been a fine weapon indeed.

Dulcea came closer, her expression dire. "May I see that?"

Jason shrugged and handed it over, laying it across her open palms. A moment later he thought he could smell the scent of burning flesh, and when Dulcea handed it back to him he could see that her hands had been charred where they had touched the scabbard.

"Dulcea, your hands -"

"You are unburned," she said, eyes wide. "That is impossible. The Sword was lost over a thousand years ago. The Last Heir vanished without a trace. This... cannot be." She shifted her gaze from the scabbard to his face. "You should not be able to touch that."

Jason frowned but did not let go. "What is it?"

"That scabbard belongs to the Sword of Power."

"The Sword of Power?" It sounded like something out of a fairy tale, but it was no tale he had ever heard.

"It is - _was_ \- an artifact created to fight against evil magic." She paused briefly. "It was forged over a thousand years ago, from ancient steel and the flames of the great dragon Hrag, and it alone had the ability to slay the greatest of the evil mages."

Jason knew how stories like this went. "But there was a catch, wasn't there."

"Not a catch. A limitation," Dulcea explained. "Only a very few people could wield the sword. One of the great mage families worked with the dragon to create it, and they quickly discovered that only a select few of their particular bloodline could touch the sword or its scabbard. Only the eldest male of each generation could do it."

"So that's what you meant by 'heir'."

"Yes. The eldest male of each generation was to be heir not only to the family, but to the sword and its legacy."

"You say that like this plan didn't work out very well."

"A human life is a fragile thing."

He did not like the sound of that. "When you said the sword was lost, you meant that the last Heir was..."

"Slain."

Feeling suddenly very unsettled, Jason put the scabbard back in its box. He had a feeling if he closed his eyes, he would still be able to feel it against his hands. "Then I don't get it. How come I can touch it without being burned?"

Dulcea shook her head. "I do not know."


	23. Unleashed

As the sun rose over the mountains, Tommy found himself sitting on the thick stone railing of the tower's highest balcony with one arm wrapped around Kimberly. He felt as if a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders, as if in one night the entire world had changed. Rita Repulsa was dead. He was free from her control forever, beyond a shadow of a doubt. And Kimberly... he could finally be with Kimberly, really and truly, without sneaking around or trying to hide how he felt about her. It seemed almost too good to be true.

Kimberly snuggled a little closer to him, as if she was thinking the same thing he was, and rested her head against his shoulder with a happy sigh. Unfortunately, their happy moment was not to last.

After the tempest last night, the morning was calm, with little wind to mask the sound of the door opening behind them. Kimberly made an unhappy sound as Tommy let go of her and turned his head to see who it was. Trini was standing with one hand still on the door latch, watching them with a faint smile on her face. As soon as she saw Tommy looking at her, her expression grew more serious.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said quietly, "but breakfast is served. Sort of."

Turning around completely, Tommy hopped off the railing. He paused to help Kimberly down, which was really just an excuse to hold her hand, before following Trini into the tower.

"So you're forewarned," Trini said without looking back, "the boys were betting on what sort of unsavory things I'd find when I went to get you."

"Oh? And who's going to win that bet?" Kimberly asked, giggling.

"I am," Trini admitted.

Amused, Tommy faked a frown and turned to Kimberly. "Maybe we should go back upstairs and try this again so we don't disappoint anyone," he suggested.

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "I am way too hungry for that right now. We can appease their dirty minds _after _I get something to eat."

Something to eat turned out not to be much, just some dried meat and porridge served up on a large table in what had once been Finster's lab. Their supplies were dwindling after the journey into the mountains, and they had been unable to obtain more food or water from Rita's tower. While the tower had sported a larder and a well during his previous stay, Tommy had been frustrated to find that those things had disappeared when Rita died. They had been powered by her magic and without her to sustain them, they had simply faded away. All of the magical parts of the tower would do the same sooner or later.

And although Dulcea seemed unbothered by that, it had Billy in a bit of a tizzy. While the others ate their breakfast more or less in silence, he fretted over the fate of the thousands of books housed in the tower.

"The parts of the tower that were not created by magic will not be affected by her death and the dispersal of her power," Dulcea assured him. It sounded like it wasn't the first time she had tried to appease him on this matter.

"But the walls were constructed by magical means," Billy protested. "If they vanish, then the books will be left unprotected and the knowledge contained within them will soon be lost forever."

Tommy listened to the debate in silence, preferring to eat his breakfast rather than join the fray.

"Billy, I understand your desire to preserve the knowledge of the ages, but these books may contain information that is better _not _passed to mortals."

Billy's expression darkened. "All knowledge is valuable. Perhaps these books do not contain information that can be of use to us now, but we do not know who else possesses this same information, or if it might be used against us someday. If we do not preserve this information now, it may not be available should we require it in the future. That is not a risk I am willing to take."

Tommy had never seen Billy so animated and passionate about anything before, and had to admit he was right. Setting his breakfast aside for the moment, he assured Billy, "I'll ask my parents to send some people up to start taking care of the most valuable items. I'm sure they'd be happy to put you in charge of the salvage operation, if you want."

"You have my most sincere gratitude!" Billy responded with a smile, and Tommy got the feeling that he had finally made some actual progress toward turning the archivist into a friend rather than an enemy.

"I wonder if we'll ever see Billy again after this," Zack mused playfully, earning laughs from most of those gathered around the breakfast table.

It worried Tommy to see that Jason did not join in. Last night he had chalked Jason's moodiness up to his close call with death, but his eyes were still dark today and he seemed unaffected by his friends' good cheer. On the way here, Jason had been optimistic and boisterous. His certainty that they were going to succeed in their mission had been infectious. But now that they had won the day, he seemed almost lost.

Tommy had to wonder if it was just Jason's near death experience that had upset him this much, or if there was something else to it. No one had seemed very inclined to discuss it last night, and he'd had other things on his mind. All he knew was that there had been a fight with Scorpina, which had nearly resulted in Jason's death by poison. Maybe, he thought, Trini or Zack could clue him in about what had really happened.

He put his worrying aside a moment later when something new caught his eye. There was a scabbard on the bench beside Jason, like nothing he had ever seen before. "Hey Jase, what've you got there?" he asked.

Jason held it up so he could see, but did not hand it over. The thing was covered in gold and jewels and generally looked very expensive. "Mind if I hang onto it?"

Tommy shook his head, wondering why he'd even asked. He did not recall seeing that scabbard before, but it must have belonged to Rita and he wanted nothing to do with any of her old junk, even if it was probably worth a lot of money. As far as he was concerned, none of it was worth the bad memories it would inevitably stir up. He just wanted to go home, put his past with Rita firmly behind him, and begin his new life with Kimberly.

But something about that scabbard continued to bother him even as the conversation shifted to other topics, such as the journey home. Tommy let Kimberly and the others take care of the plans. In the meantime, he watched as Jason seemed to withdraw again. It wasn't like him to act like this, and it definitely wasn't like him to be so protective of his possessions like that, and not even allow a friend a closer look at something.

Things had changed in the night, and now Tommy was not so sure all the changes were for the better. But since none of the others seemed bothered by Jason's behavior, Tommy kept his peace. It was entirely possible that Jason would come out of this funk on his own eventually, and there were plenty of other things to worry about.

They left the tower that afternoon. By then they had all had a chance to go through the tower and find anything they were personally interested in keeping, and Billy had selected one book for each of them to carry home. With plans tentatively in place for the upcoming salvage operation, Jason at least physically recovered from his brush with death, and the magical maze gone from the mountainside, backtracking was relatively simple. Heading downhill was much easier than climbing up, especially now that they did not have to worry about Rita attacking them. Of course, there was always a chance that Rita had left non-magical traps lying around, but they had not encountered any of those going up and they did not find any now.

By the time they reached less dangerous terrain, they had settled back into the same routine that they had followed going up into the mountains. Before breakfast each day, Kimberly would practice her magic with Dulcea, this time with additional input from Zordon. After breakfast, they would set out and walk for most of the day, setting up camp when the afternoon began to wane and they could find a suitable site. If it was not too late at that point, Kimberly would practice magic or archery on her own, and then spend the night with Tommy.

They did not make love on the road, as Kimberly thought it would be 'way too awkward' to do so with their friends so close by and no real privacy of any kind, but at least now they could be more open in their displays of affection. They were not married yet and Tommy knew he had no real claim to her, but it was nice to be able to be near her if he wanted, without having to feel guilty about it.

Well, maybe not entirely without having to feel guilty.

With Rita finally dead and his freedom established once and for all, he knew he needed to speak with Kimberly about several things: about their future together, for one... but also about what had happened with Katherine during his quest to find the dragon that could free him from Rita's control. No easy opportunity had presented itself, so he'd held off telling her in the interest of not creating trouble within the group. Things had been strained enough having Billy along, and he had not wanted to make things worse with a sorceress watching their every move and looking for a weakness to exploit.

But now that Rita was gone, he knew he had no excuse and no real choice. If Kimberly was going to spend her life at his side, if she wanted to marry him and crown him as King, then she deserved to know more about the _real _him and not just the evil version she had known before. And she deserved to know about his infidelity, however unwitting that had been. But whenever he tried to tell her about it, all it took was one adoring look from her and his heart would melt and he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was easier to put it off for one more day than to speak the words he knew would break her heart.

And besides, he told himself by way of justification, it was not as if anything would ever come of the time he had spent with Kat. Katherine knew that as well as he did, just as they both knew it would never have happened in the first place if not for Rita's magic. And the longer he put off telling Kimberly about it, the more it seemed like it might be better if she just never found out.

So he said nothing the entire time they were in the mountains.

He decided that he would tell her when they reached his family's estate, but he did not tell her then, either. He blamed it on his family and on circumstances, and it was easy because he and Kimberly really did not have much time to themselves at the Oliver estate. Between dealing with his parents (and their reaction to the news that their eldest son had not only survived his quest, but was going to become King) and helping Billy organize the operation to salvage the books from Rita's tower, Tommy had his hands full. By the end of the day, it was usually all he could do to crawl into bed and sleep, and the thought of telling Kimberly was forgotten until morning.

By the time they hit the road again, this time with the added complication of having his family along, he was thankful for any uninterrupted time he got to spend with Kimberly at all. And rather than risk upsetting her or causing a rift between them when he needed her more than ever, he kept his mouth shut and waged an internal war with himself. _She should know_ on the one side warred constantly with _but what good will that really do _on the other.

If Kimberly noticed that he was troubled, she did not say anything to him about it. In fact, during most of their days on the road, she was busy enough chatting excitedly with Trini (and, embarrassingly, also with Lady Oliver) about the wedding that sometimes he found himself wondering if she had forgotten he existed at all. Sure, they got to spend time together at night, and he was happy that she was so happy, but sometimes he still felt a bit neglected.

"You know," he muttered to Jason when they were about a day's ride from the castle, "she never actually asked me if I wanted to get married."

Jason laughed. "It's a little late for cold feet. She's already made up her mind."

Tommy grumbled under his breath at that and shrugged off a follow-up jibe from his father. He was glad to see that Jason was in much better spirits than he had been for most of the journey, and no longer seemed to be moping as much. That meant there was one less thing that Tommy needed to worry about.

It still surprised him a bit just how quickly he and Jason had struck up a friendship. Given everything that had happened when he was under Rita's control, he would not have blamed Jason at all for hating him, but Jason had been the first one to see his innocence and had quickly become one of his staunchest supporters. When nearly everyone else had doubted him, Jason had believed his story enough to plan a search for the sorceress himself. Tommy could only hope that he might one day get an opportunity to repay Jason for giving him that second chance.

They met outriders from the castle early the next morning, and by midday they had reached the city's outer limits. There, they were greeted by massive crowds of people lining the streets. The townsfolk cheered as their little party rode past. Somehow, Tommy had not expected that. By contrast, Kimberly was all smiles, waving the the people without reservation.

By the time they finally reached the castle gate, most of the nobles had gathered in the courtyard or on the ramparts to meet them. Jason's father, Lord Scott, stood in the very entrance to the castle itself. The large doors had been thrown open in welcome.

Despite the supposed honor of being selected to act as regent in the Princess's absence, Lord Scott looked extremely relieved to see that his son - and Princess Kimberly - had returned from their journey in one piece. Based on what Kimberly had told him about dealing with the various noble families that made up the royal council, Tommy guessed that Lord Scott was going to be very glad to be done with his stint as ruler of the kingdom.

Tommy and the others stopped a short distance from the entrance, letting Kimberly go ahead alone. She dismounted and walked over to clasp hands with Lord Scott, thanking him personally for the service he had done her. In turn, he bowed and thanked the Princess for the honor she had bestowed upon him and his family.

Already Tommy found himself wishing they were back on the road, away from the politics and formalities of city life. _What was I thinking, falling for a Princess?_ he wondered as he watched her. He'd been thinking, of course, that she was Kimberly, and that he had known from the moment he saw her that she was the girl of his dreams. Even if she _was_a Princess.

As much as he liked to forget the fact that she was a Princess, that she was _the _Princess, and as such had many duties and responsibilities, he could not ignore it now. As she stood in front of her castle, road-weary and travel-worn, it seemed almost impossible to look away from her.

She turned away from Lord Scott to face the gathered nobles. "Our mission to destroy the sorceress was successful," she said simply, expertly pitching her voice to carry as far as possible without shouting. "The threat to the realm is no more."

This announcement earned cheers from the onlookers, although Tommy wondered how many of them realized just how much danger they had been in. If Rita had succeeded in claiming Kimberly's realm for her own, he had little doubt that most of these people would have been killed, while the kingdom and city would have been reduced to rubble. And he would likely have remained a slave forever, he thought, and suppressed a grimace. He owed Kimberly so much. They all did.

Kimberly waited for the crowd to fall silent before continuing. "I would now like to convene a meeting of my high council to explain the details."

No one argued.

What followed was a brief respite that lasted only long enough for the travelers to grab a bite to eat and change into more appropriate clothing for court. Since the Olivers did not have a permanent residence in the city or the castle, they were ushered to a guest suite that had been outfitted for their use.

Kimberly had warned everyone in advance that a meeting like this would be expected, and that they would be expected to attend, but everything happened so quickly that it left Tommy feeling like his head was spinning. And, unfortunately, he did not have the luxury of taking time to clear his head.

He had barely gulped down his food and gotten cleaned up before a servant appeared at the door to escort him to the throne room. As it turned out, far more than just the members of the high council had gathered there. Even the hallway outside was crammed with people. He had to fight his way through to where his parents were waiting with Dulcea and Zordon.

Before they went into the throne room, Trini sought him out with a hurried warning: "Kim's probably going to take this opportunity to tell everyone she's decided to marry you. So... brace yourself. Stick close to your parents if you can. Once they know that you're going to be the King, the other noble families are going to start trying to see how malleable you are."

She was gone before he could respond, whisked off to somewhere else. Tommy just stared after her, feeling confused. What had she meant by 'malleable'?

He understood what she meant the moment he set foot in the throne room. The atmosphere was excited, but strangely oppressive. He could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes watching him speculatively.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Jason asked from behind him.

Tommy turned in surprise, then had to smile. He had not even noticed Jason approaching. "Yeah," he mumbled, still feeling a bit overwhelmed.

"Don't worry," Jason went on, sounding a lot more confident than Tommy felt. "I've got your back."

Somehow, that actually made him feel better.

He stuck with Jason after that point, finding a seat near the Scotts. He was counting on Jason and his parents to be valuable allies.

His own parents soon caught up, and Dulcea, with the crystal in which Zordon was trapped still on its chain around her neck, completed the little group. While they waited for Kimberly to arrive and call the proceedings to order, Tommy sat in gloomy silence and tried to ignore the gossip and the way people kept casting curious looks in his direction.

Finally, once everyone else had assembled, the Princess arrived. Everyone stood at once as she walked to her place at the front of the room. A hush fell over the crowd, although they did not fall completely silent until the moment Kimberly ascended the dais. She did not take a seat on the throne, but stood in front of it to recount her tale.

It was strange to hear about their adventure from someone else's perspective, especially when that someone else was Kimberly Hart. She had a flair for the dramatic, and Tommy thought she made the whole thing sound far more thrilling and heroic than it actually had been. What she described as a grand adventure, Tommy knew had been mostly tedious travel leading up to the most frightening battle of his life. It hadn't felt heroic at all; it had felt damn scary. But everyone seemed to eat it up.

By the time she reached the battle with Rita, he knew that Trini had been right: Kimberly was setting up to reveal her choice of husband. Still, it irked him to hear her omit her part in Rita's demise in order to make him sound more impressive. As she described the battle's climax and the sorceress's death, Tommy braced himself for the inevitable.

"As a last note," Kimberly said almost casually. "I have chosen the man who will be my husband." After a few moments' pause to let the suspense build, she continued, "One month from this day, I will wed Sir Tommy Oliver."

Although it could not have been that unexpected, the audience erupted into more or less controlled pandemonium. Amidst it all, Kimberly remained calm. Tommy, on the other hand, felt uncomfortable being the focus of so much attention. He was glad to be in the company of friends and family, or else it would have been completely unbearable. As it was, he still would have preferred to be just about anywhere else.

Eventually the gathering came to order and one by one the members of the high council began to question Kimberly about her choice. To Tommy's surprise, none of them seemed to doubt his worth. Their questions were all political in nature, and none of them would rest until both Jason and his parents had publicly relinquished any claim they may have had to the Princess. As the questioning dragged on and on - and became more and more boring - those in the audience who were not part of the council began to trickle from the room. By the time the session was over, Tommy was able to make his escape relatively unnoticed.

Relieved that the council session was over and seemed to have decided in favor of allowing him to marry the Princess, Tommy nonetheless found himself sending Jason and the others on their way so he could wait for Kimberly alone. He could only imagine how she would feel after having dealt with all of that, and he wanted to help her feel better if he could.

Her eyes were dark when she finally emerged from the throne room. She looked exhausted, but her eyes lit up when she caught sight of him waiting for her. "Hey there," she murmured, heading over to where he was standing.

"How are you feeling, Beautiful?" he asked.

For a moment she looked happy enough to melt. "Better now," she admitted. "That was a little rough."

"Sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't be. It's only going to get worse from here." She sighed, and he wished they were somewhere private enough for him to hold her. She looked like she needed a hug. But they were in the castle's main hallway, not in some private chamber, and her eyes now held a look that brooked no argument. "We need to talk," she said.

"Okay," he responded, and immediately felt like an oaf. Trying to salvage some dignity, he added, "Here? Or somewhere else?"

"Somewhere more private."

He wasn't about to argue with that.

Kimberly led the way. For a moment he let himself think she was taking him to her chambers, but she turned and went a different way. At first he wasn't quite sure where she was taking him, but eventually he realized that he recognized this part of the castle. His suspicions were confirmed when she ushered him into the royal treasure chamber.

"I think it's best that we talk about this here," she said, closing the door behind her.

"About what?" he asked, feeling a bit nervous all of a sudden. This wasn't just the royal treasure room, after all. It was also where he had fought Zack as Rita's evil Green Knight, and the room where Kimberly had given Billy (and Zack and Trini before him) magical powers.

"You do want to marry me, right?"

He stared at her for a moment, taken aback. "Of course I do!" he burst out. He intended to say more, although he really did not have the slightest idea how to express his feelings, but her smile made him fall silent.

"That's what I thought. So I think it's only fair that you know what you're getting into."

That gave him pause. He was not lying when he said he wanted to marry her. He cared for her very much, he _loved _her, but marrying her meant more than just being with her for the rest of his days. It meant he was going to be the King. And until this very moment he had not stopped to think about what that would entail. He had been too focused on smaller, more immediate goals to think about the long term.

Apparently Kimberly had been thinking about that while he had been otherwise occupied.

"Well," he began uncertainly, "I know marrying you means I'll becoming the King..."

She nodded. "You're going to have a lot to earn before you can sit on the throne, though. You'll have to learn the details of the law, and the protocol for the different councils. And... being the King means you're going to have to live here in the city with me."

He hadn't really considered that. He had always pictured the two of them living happily in the countryside, somewhere like the family estate where he had grown up, where they could spend their days hunting and hawking. Where life would be far more carefree than life in the castle. But the truth was, if he married Kimberly, he would never inherit that family estate. His only offspring would be a single daughter, who would ascend to the throne upon Kimberly's death. His branch of the family tree would end with him.

And yet when the alternative meant not being with Kimberly, his path seemed crystal clear. So he said only, "I know."

"There's more to it than that," she protested, seeming suddenly agitated. "There's also a magical component."

He, like everyone else in the kingdom, was vaguely aware of that. Everyone knew that there was magic in the royal blood, and that the Queen only ever bore a single child, and that child was always a daughter. It was for this reason that the royal family was matrilineal and the heir to the throne was always female. He had suspected that there was more to it than that, based on Kimberly's actions and bits and pieces he had been able to gather from Rita, but none of it made much sense to him.

Since she seemed upset, he forced himself to smile in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "I've dealt with magic before, Kim."

"This magic is inside me." She paused for a long moment, holding his gaze with her own before turning to pace the room. She came to a stop beside the pedestal that held the royal crown. "I don't really understand it myself, but there's powerful magic inside my body - in my blood - and only the man I marry can use it. It goes all the way back to the founding of our nation, and somehow it helps protect us from things like Rita."

Suddenly the whole magic thing sounded a lot more daunting. "I don't get it," he protested. "You were using magic before."

"Yes," she agreed. "I was using magic. But it wasn't _my _magic, it was energy I pulled out of the world around me. My magic is something that... I can't touch."

"But I can."

"Yes. And it's something in this crown that will unlock it for you." She ran her fingers along the top edge of the crown. "Right now I'm the only person in the world that can touch this. But... once I give it to someone, to my husband, then he will have that power, too. I think... from what I understand, it's the King's life force that supports and shapes the protective magic."

He stared at her, aghast, and wondered how she could possibly choose someone like him for such a monumental burden. He knew he had managed to clear his name, but the fact remained that he had originally come to the castle a traitor. And soon he would be King, with the safety of the entire realm somehow in his hands, literally.

"We don't have much time left," Kimberly went on. "I only had thirteen months to marry after my parents died, or else the magic will fade away and be lost forever."

He had assumed that she needed to marry as soon as possible because the kingdom needed a pair of ruling monarchs. He had not thought there might be a magical reason for the rush. Confused and somewhat horrified to finally realize the strain the idea of marriage must have put on Kimberly, he managed to ask, "This is a really closely guarded secret, isn't it?"

She nodded, looking sad beyond words. "Not even Zordon knows all the details. They were supposed to be passed from mother to daughter... but mine died so quickly from the plague that she never got the chance to tell me everything. We thought we had years yet before I'd need to know any of this."

"Kim..." He tried and failed to resist the urge to take her in his arms and squeeze her tight.

She leaned into him and sighed. "We'll just have to figure it out together, won't we?"

 

 

In all her childhood dreams, Kimberly had only ever imagined one wedding day, when she would wed her true love and begin her happily-ever-after. The fact that this was her second wedding day did nothing to diminish her high spirits.

That first wedding, when she had nearly been forced to marry Jason, now seemed like only a distant nightmare. Today she felt practically overwhelmed by giddy relief, knowing that it was Tommy - the man she loved with all her heart - who would be waiting for her in the throne room, and who would stand beside her as King.

She looked at herself in the mirror while Trini laced up her gown, and it occurred to her as if for the first time: _I'm going to be Queen. And Tommy is going to be my King._

She smiled and felt happy tears in her eyes.

"Hey now, no crying," Aisha admonished, bustling into the room with an armful of flowers. "Don't want to have to redo that makeup."

"I know," she said. "I'm just... so _happy_."

"And we're happy for you," Trini said cheerfully, giving the laces to Kim's bodice one last good tug.

Trini stepped away then to let Kimberly inspect herself in the mirror. She turned this way and that, looking from every angle she could manage, but nothing displeased her. This dress was not as fancy as the first one had been, but that first one had been ruined. Her tailor was skilled enough to salvage most of it, but he had been forced to change the cut and reduce the volume of her skirts. At first she had been doubtful; her first gown, with its swathes of material, had seemed so much more princessly than this one. But appraising it now, even without her jewelry or veil, she was pleased with the changes.

She looked less childish. More refined. She looked like a Queen. And the more she looked at herself in the mirror, the more she thought this new look suited her better than the old one had.

Then she had no more time to worry about the dress, because Trini had returned with a tray of jewelry for her to choose from. After making her selections, she let Trini twist and braid her hair, although she insisted on positioning the veil herself to make sure it was exactly right. By then, Aisha was ready with an intricately woven bouquet of flowers.

Even though she had been trying not to think of what was to come, her heart was beating fast with excitement. The moment of truth was rapidly approaching. One last lingering look in the mirror, posing and primping with her flowers and veil, and she decided that this was it. She was officially _ready_.

She took a deep breath to calm some of her excitement, and turned to her friends. "Okay, let's do this."

Aisha and Trini accompanied her down to the throne room, then melted away to take their places in the audience. Kimberly remembered the first time she had attempted to do this, when it had been Jason instead of Tommy waiting for her, and had to smile. Last time she had struggled so hard to make herself take that first step. Now it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

And yet as she walked so effortlessly into the throne room, she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of lingering fear. She half expected Rita, or one of her goons, to jump out of the shadows at any moment and ruin everything.

But nothing happened. Rita was dead and gone. There was only the vast crowd of onlookers, sprinkled here and there with familiar faces, and beyond that the flower-strewn aisle, and up ahead the dais with its two thrones... and Tommy. Her heart seemed to soar within her; it was really all she could do to maintain her slow and stately pace when what she wanted most was to run to him and fling her arms around him and shower him with kisses. But she knew she owed it to him - and she owed it to herself - to do this right.

So she forced herself to remain calm, taking it one step at a time, and it turned out it didn't take that long to reach her goal after all. She stepped up onto the dais and stood opposite Tommy, and felt a shiver go down her spine as she met his eyes. How many times had she dreamed of this?

She didn't know. And it didn't matter, because this was no dream. At long last, this was the real deal.

After the complete failure of her first wedding, it had been difficult to find a priest willing to officiate for this one. Traditionally, the reigning King and Queen would oversee the marriage of their daughter, but since that was not possible Kimberly had been forced to make do with what she could get. And that had turned out to be an elderly man who had probably been a priest longer since before her parents were even born.

But as he gave his blessing and began the ceremony, Kimberly decided that she really did like the amiable old man, and that she was glad she had chosen him to officiate. Her courtiers had told her it was a bit old fashioned to turn to a priest instead of a nobleman, but she thought her parents would have approved of the nod to long-standing tradition. Zordon certainly did.

The only unfortunate thing was that the traditional religious wedding ceremony was long. Although, she thought as she stared adoringly into Tommy's eyes through the white film of her veil, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all.

They had not had much time to rehearse this together, but Kimberly was pleased that neither of them faltered in the slightest or made a single mistake as the priest guided them through the ceremony. Their voices were strong when they were called upon to speak the many vows required of them, so there could be no doubting their feelings.

She swore to love and honor Tommy, to be faithful to him for the rest of her life, and to guide him with the wisdom granted to her as a woman and a Hart. And in turn, he swore to honor and protect her, to love her with his whole heart, and to be faithful to her and only her for the rest of his days. As far as Kimberly was concerned, everything went perfectly, down to the very last words.

It was difficult to keep her expression neutral when she wanted to smile, and a glance at Tommy made her suspect he was having the same problem. Not that she blamed him. Joy seemed infectious today.

She kept a straight face as she knelt down for the priest and let him remove her veil and the silver Princess's crown. It was strange to think that she would never again wear that crown. After the coronation, she would wear the golden Queen's crown, the mate to the magical crown she would soon give to her husband.

She got to her feet again and turned back to Tommy. He took her hands in his, and she found it suddenly very difficult to resist the urge to kiss him. She managed to retain her composure somehow, although she still felt a bit breathless.

After leaving her - and everyone else - in suspense for a moment, the priest continued with the ceremony. At the priest's bidding, Tommy placed her mother's ring upon her finger; a moment later, as the priest and ceremony commanded, she gave her father's ring to Tommy. And when at last the priest had finished invoking all of the many gods of old and had proclaimed them bound in the eyes of gods and men, Tommy took her in his arms and - _finally!_\- kissed her soundly for everyone to see. Kimberly's heart was beating so fast she could hardly think to kiss him back.

The kiss sealed it. It was done. It was done, it was done, it was done.

Kimberly felt suddenly odd, as if a thousand doves had taken wing inside her all at once. When she opened her eyes, everything around her seemed to _shine_. Her breath caught in her throat, threatening to choke her with sheer sensation. If not for Tommy's arms around her, she might have fallen. And then she finally realized what was going on: magic.

The magic inside her... Up until now it had been only sleeping. Now it was coming awake.

No one had ever told her it would feel anything like this. Pulling away from Tommy, staring around her in wild confusion, her gaze fell upon the royal crowns where they stood on pedestals beside the twin thrones. The Queen's crown looked much the same to her as it always did, jeweled and shining, but it was only cut jewels and polished metal. But the King's crown, the one she had damaged to give Trini, Zack, and Billy their magical powers... She could see now, how it seemed to bleed shining golden light from the places where the missing jewels had been. And where those jewels had been, she could see glowing symbols.

She wanted to touch that aura of light, to run her fingers over the tiny symbols to see if she could make out what they were. It seemed like she should know what they were and what they meant. Distantly, she heard Tommy ask if she was okay.

Unthinking, she said only, "A King needs a crown."

The coronation had been planned for today, of course, but it had been scheduled after the wedding feast. The magic inside her seemed to be telling Kimberly it should happen now, that it _had _to happen now. She did not know why it was so important, only that it was.

"If Your Highness wishes to proceed with the coronation now..." the priest said awkwardly.

"We do," Kimberly said. She had the strange sensation of speaking for and with a thousand years' worth of her ancestors. It felt as if her mother stood to her left, and her mother to her left, and on and on, so that they formed a spiral going back all the way to the founder of their line, Bryndis Hart herself. Kimberly found herself staring, as if she could actually see that woman; and in her mind's eye the First Queen stared back, piercing her with fierce brown eyes that seemed to say, _You are my granddaughter many many times removed, but we have a special connection, you and I._

And then Tommy's hands were on her shoulders, severing the connection with her ancestors and pulling her painfully back to the mortal world. "Kim, are you okay? You're scaring everyone..."

She blinked several times. "I'm fine. Did you see anything strange just now?"

His eyes were filled with concern as he shook his head. "Nothing."

"Weird."

"Kim, if something is going on, I wish you'd tell me."

"I think we should have the coronation now."

His brow furrowed. "Kimberly..."

"I'm _fine_. I promise. It's just... I can feel the magic in me now, and I think... It's telling me it would be best if we did the coronation now."

He looked a little skeptical, but finally he nodded. "Fine, if it'll make you feel better."

Smiling widely, she turned to give the announcement to the gathered crowd. At least in this she was confident; the coronation invocation was one of the few magical things her mother had taught her. She had memorized it almost as soon as she could speak the words, because even as a child she had known it was one of the most important things she would ever do and she hadn't wanted to mess it up.

After a brief pause to take the crown from its pedestal, she began to speak the invocation. The words were of the language she spoke every day, but they were so old that they sounded almost foreign to her ears. But even so, she got every word right, down to the very last syllable. She could almost hear her mother reciting the strange words along with her, as she had done the many times they had practiced the invocation together during Kimberly's childhood. In her hands, the crown seemed to almost vibrate with anticipation. The sensation grew more and more intense until she began to fear that she would drop the crown completely.

And then at last she reached the end of her invocation, and spoke the final words. She knew he couldn't understand them, so she had told Tommy beforehand what they meant: _I have given you my life and my love, and now I give you my kingdom, too, that you may stand beside me as my equal and partner, and together we can protect and safeguard our land and our people until the end of our days._

As he had been instructed before the ceremony, Tommy knelt before her and kept his eyes downcast. "I am your humble servant, my Lady," he said quietly.

She placed the crown upon his head without further ado, and felt as if she had just been struck by lightning. She barely noticed as he stood and returned the favor, speaking his own invocation by rote and placing the Queen's crown on her head; instead, she felt energized, excited, overwhelmed... like everything in the world was as it should be, at long last.

 

 

After the wedding and coronation came the feast. While the ceremony itself had by necessity been restricted to only as many people as could fit in the throne room, the feast was open to any who could find the time to attend. There were tables heaped with food in the banquet hall, in the courtyard, and even outside the castle walls.

To tell the truth, Trini felt a bit awkward attending the feast as a guest of honor. She had attended feasts and parties before, of course, but it always made her feel out of place to be the only servant seated at the high table. Today's feast was worse.

She found herself seated to Kimberly's left, in the place of special honor normally accorded to the highest ranking guests or reserved for heroes of the realm. And although she had accompanied Kimberly and the others on the quest to defeat Rita, she felt that she was neither an honored guest nor a hero, and would have much preferred a place well out of the limelight.

To her left, she caught sight of Aisha smiling warmly at her. "Don't look so worried," Aisha teased. "Kimberly's the Queen now, so she gets what she wants. And if what she wants is to have her best friend sit next to her at her wedding feast, then that's what she's going to get."

Trini tried to smile and even managed a small laugh. "Yeah, of course," she said.

And as the kitchen staff brought out the first dishes, she did try to enjoy herself for Kimberly's sake. But it wasn't as easy as she would have liked. She had too much on her mind.

She couldn't stop wondering how her role in the palace, and in Kimberly's life, was going to change now that Kimberly had married. She knew that Kimberly saw her as a friend and confidant, and not just as a servant, but she could not help the doubt that had wormed its way into her heart. What if Kimberly didn't need her anymore?

Even though they were all served course after course of the finest food and entertained by one spectacle after another, her spirits refused to rise. She knew that this feast was far less ostentatious than the first one Kimberly had planned, but in spite of her love for glamour and display, Kimberly looked happier than Trini could ever remember seeing her before. It would seem that marrying the man she loved - rather than the one she was being forced to wed - had made all the difference.

Trini knew she should be feeling happy for her friend, but all she felt was trepidation.

Halfway through the sixth course, she realized ruefully that 'less' ostentatious did not mean much when Kimberly was the one planning the affair. She had been careful to pace herself, but there was just too much food. She had no hope of even trying most of the last courses, and when the food finally did run out, Trini was surprised to find that she could still move.

After the feast came dancing, games, and other entertainments. There were only a handful of people she actually wanted to dance with, but they were either busy or nowhere to be found, so she settled for dancing with the ones that asked. But eventually she grew tired of being whirled around the dance floor and making small talk, so she tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible and headed out into the courtyard for some fresh air. The yard was almost more crowded than the banquet hall inside the castle, and the stifling atmosphere left Trini pushing her way through the masses of people and finally slipping back into the castle via one of the side doors.

Still desiring some fresh air, and hoping to cool off a bit, she made her way upstairs and emerged again atop the castle wall. There were few people up here, just a handful of guards, really, and there was a nice, cool breeze blowing in from the west.

She wandered down the length of the wall, putting the castle's keep between her and the people gathered in the yard. Normally she did not like high places and would never have chosen to seek refuge up here on the wall, but it was better than being crammed into the yard with everyone else. And it was strangely peaceful, almost calming.

She rounded a corner and stopped suddenly. She had not expected to run into anybody up here in the middle of a party, much less Jason. But there he was, leaning against the battlements and staring off into the setting sun.

He looked so thoughtful that for a moment she was reluctant to approach him. Watching him from afar, she felt a sudden stab of loneliness and regret deep in her heart. Things had been different between them since the fight with Scorpina. "Uncomfortable" was the wrong word, she thought; it was more like "strange". They had both been trying very hard to pretend that nothing had changed, but Trini couldn't shake the feeling that they were drifting apart, like she was losing him the way she felt she was losing Kimberly.

The preparations for the royal wedding had meant that life was particularly hectic for her lately, but even on the journey home they had barely spoken to one another. She was not sure what had set it off, but Jason had become more and more distant over the past few weeks. When once he would have sought her out to see how she was doing, now he bided his time in silence. She could see it happening, indeed she was increasingly aware of it with each day that passed, but she had no idea how to approach him about it short of confronting him directly. And seeing him now, she did not think confrontation was a good idea. The thought of possibly arguing with him had her heart all tied up in knots.

She wondered if she ought to go back the way she had come and leave him to his thoughts, but then he caught sight of her and it was too late. It would be rude (not to mention weird) to simply run off now that she had already disturbed him, so she walked over to stand beside him instead of listening to the instinct that told her to flee.

"You look awfully glum," she observed, doing her best to sound casual. And although she had a feeling she already knew, she asked, "What's on your mind?"

He didn't bother to hide it. "I can't stop thinking about that scabbard I found in Rita's tower," he admitted, "and wondering what it means."

She did not know what to say. It was not what she had hoped to hear, but it wasn't exactly unexpected, either. It troubled her, though. Even on what was supposed to be a day of celebration, Jason couldn't seem to let go of what Dulcea had told him. The sword and its scabbard had been forged in a land far to the east; if he went there, he might - or might not - find some clue as to why he could handle the scabbard without being burned by its power.

As much as it worried her to know his thoughts were so far away, she had to admit that if someone had told her that she might have a magical destiny in a far off land, she probably would have reacted in much the same way. But that brought her little comfort. In fact, it made her wonder if he might be considering leaving again, like he'd planned to do when he went in search of Rita. She couldn't bear the thought of him leaving in search of something that might - and might not - be destiny.

"Sorry to disappoint," Jason grumbled, having noticed her reluctance to respond. "If I could quit dwelling on it, believe me, I would."

"I know. It's just... I worry, is all."

"Relax, I'm not planning to do anything stupid."

"I know." Now she had to wonder what he was planning, but she was afraid to ask. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know, but at the same time she was already asking herself if she was ready to follow him if he decided to go after the sword that scabbard belonged to. She nearly said as much, but realized too late that she had been silent - staring at him - too long.

He mumbled some excuse and before she could think to say anything to stop him, he was gone.

 

 

Kimberly thought she would spend her wedding night dreaming of her husband's loving touch. But when at last the marriage was fully consummated and she finally fell asleep beside him, her dreams were not of Tommy at all.

She heard the roar of waves before she even opened her eyes. She listened for a moment with her eyes still closed, and remembered with a start that she had never been to the sea before. She had no idea what it should sound like, yet there it was, all around her. Startled, she opened her eyes and found herself standing on a starlit beach.

The sand was dark beneath her bare feet; she realized that she wore a dress of plain white linen and a heavy crown upon her head. Confused, she looked out over black water and saw the full moon just beginning to rise. She sensed looming trees and thick vegetation behind her, overtaking the ruins of some long-abandoned city. "Where am I?"

"By the sea," Bryndis Hart said.

Kimberly whirled. The First Queen stood, as barefoot and plainly clad as Kimberly, a short distance to her left and slightly behind her. For a moment all Kimberly could do was stare, and wish her heart would not beat quite so fast.

"You are surprised to see me," Bryndis observed.

"You're dead!" Kimberly pointed out.

"Yes, I suppose I am."

"What are you doing here?"

Bryndis chuckled. "Guiding you."

When Kimberly turned to look at her this time, Bryndis was holding something in her hand that glowed like a star. It burned so brightly that Kimberly could not see what it was. She squinted against the light, then finally had to turn back to the sea. "Guiding me," she murmured. "Guiding me to what?"

"Here, of course."

Kimberly frowned. "That's not much of an answer. I still don't know where 'here' is!"

"I cannot tell you that directly, but here is a question for you. Have you never wondered where _I_came from?"

Kimberly's frown deepened. As the First Queen, Bryndis Hart had founded the monarchy, created the kingdom, and used powerful (but no longer understood) magics to protect her new realm and ensure the future safety of her descendants. Everyone knew that. _Have you never wondered where I came from?_ Kimberly's eyes went wide. "You weren't from... here... originally," she guessed.

Brynids smiled slightly. "No. I was not."

A moment later, Kimberly stood alone on the darkened seashore; Bryndis had vanished as if she had never been there at all. Silent and troubled, Kimberly listened to the waves and watched the moon rise.

She had never been there, herself, but she knew that the faraway sea formed the easternmost border of her kingdom. And she was certain beyond a doubt that Bryndis had showed her this place for a reason. If she could only figure out what that reason might be...

Kimberly jolted awake suddenly. As Tommy stirred beside her, all she could think was to say, "I have to go to the sea."

 

 

The wedding celebrations continued well into the night, but Jason left the party early. His encounter with Trini earlier had only worsened his mood, so he had gone home with the intention of getting drunk enough to forget about everything that had been bothering him lately.

He was seated at the large rustic table in the kitchen of his family's city home, working on doing just that, when the back door lock clicked open. His parents had come home and gone upstairs to bed a long time ago, so the sudden sound caught him by surprise. The door opened quietly and a moment later Trini crept in. She tucked the key into her bodice and gave a slightly embarrassed smile when she saw him sitting at the table.

He was definitely surprised; his parents had given her that key years ago, along with the promise that she was welcome in their home if she ever needed to get away from the castle for a while, but he could use the fingers of one hand to tally how often she had used it.

"Hey, Trini," he said, failing utterly to disguise his surprise. "What are you doing here?"

She smiled in a gentle, almost sad way. "I didn't feel like staying by myself tonight."

His mind immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion, but he tamped down on that and hoped he hadn't let it show. Knowing that there was absolutely no way she had come here to spend the night with him, he scrambled for some sort of appropriate response, but came up empty-handed. He was saved a moment later when his mother breezed into the kitchen. Ignoring him completely, she hurried over and gave Trini a kiss on each cheek before taking her cloak.

Suddenly feeling inexplicably annoyed at the old-fashioned gesture, and his mother's familiarity with Trini, Jason looked away. He knew that some of his irritation was because of his mixed feelings regarding the future, but there was another part to it, a part he would normally have ignored. But in his moodiness tonight, he felt more inclined to wallow in it.

And since he had to admit it in order to brood about it, he did. The kiss of greeting was out of style, yes, but mostly it irritated him that his mother could be that close to Trini and he couldn't. He'd never even tried, because by the time he was old enough for it to be socially acceptable, their friendship had already been strained. Of course, that had been entirely his fault. He'd been the one with the spectacularly stupid idea to ask Trini for a kiss as a forfeit after winning one of their practice duels, a demand that had nearly ruined their friendship. Eventually his mother had been forced to intervene, and although they had been able to put that incident behind them and return to being friends, things had never been quite the same.

His feelings for Trini hadn't really changed since then. But he had grown out of some of his adolescent idiocy, at least enough to wonder if maybe it hadn't been the kiss that had been the problem, but rather his approach. He had become so accustomed to simply not thinking about his feelings for her that now he wasn't sure if what he felt was really what he thought it was, or if it was just wishful thinking... the regret of a lonely man who'd passed up the chance to marry a Princess and become a King.

It felt almost surreal, wondering about these things in silence while she sat across from him at the table, picking at a plate of bread and cheese, laughing and chatting with his mother as if she had no idea what was going on in his head. Then again, he had given her no reason to suspect what he was thinking, and as it turned out he still didn't have the nerve to bring it up. Given the choice between letting things remain as they were and potentially destroying their friendship again, the answer was obvious.

Obvious, maybe, but not exactly pleasant. He had been doing a lot of thinking since his fight with Scorpina, and most of that had been unpleasant. Most of it had had to do with Trini, too. He had realized something that night. He'd realized that he needed to stop taking time for granted.

He was only human, after all. He was mortal. And underneath the protection of all his armor, he was as frail as any other human. He had almost died. Any battle might potentially be his last.

And he still couldn't bring himself to talk to Trini about any of this.

He couldn't bring himself to maybe lose her for good, just to have a chance at being more than just friends. And yet at the same time, he no longer knew if he could be happy only being her friend.

Realizing that this line of thinking was both dangerous and getting him nowhere, Jason decided he had had enough brooding for one night. There was nothing he could do about this particular problem right now, at least not without inevitably making an ass of himself, but there was something else he needed to do that he could take care of.

Grumbling something under his breath, he took his leave of the kitchen and headed upstairs. He heard Trini and his mother wishing him a good night, but he ignored them. He wasn't going to bed just yet anyway. He went past his bedroom, making his way instead to the door at the very end of the upstairs hall. That door led to the study.

It was not a large room, but it was nicely appointed, its shelf-lined walls filled with all manner of books. At the center of the room and occupying most of the space in it was a large desk, covered in papers and various paraphernalia. His father was seated there, looking over something or other. He looked up when Jason entered, but he did not seem surprised to see his son.

Jason met his father's gaze for a moment, then blurted out what was on his mind without stopping to explain first. "I want to go after that sword."

His father didn't seem surprised by that, either.


	24. Parting Ways

Kimberly's life as a married woman was officially off to a less than auspicious start: Tommy met her middle of the night decision to take a honeymoon trip to the coast with skepticism.

"Kim," he said tiredly, "go back to sleep."

But she was wide awake, so she told him about the dream she'd just had anyway. "You don't get it," she concluded, suddenly frustrated with him. "I _need_ to figure this out, and I'm pretty sure I have to go to the sea to do it."

Tommy sighed. "Why? It was only a dream, Kimberly. It wasn't real."

She let him convince her to go back to sleep after that, but she had no intention of taking no for an answer. It might have been "only" a dream, but it had felt totally different from any dream she had ever experienced before. It had felt so vivid and real that Tommy's dismissive words made her wonder: what if it _wasn't_ just a dream?

Her next step was to go see Zordon and Dulcea first thing in the morning. If Tommy wouldn't take her seriously, then maybe they would.

She found them in the guest wing of the castle, where Zordon had often stayed during his previous visits. Dulcea had agreed to stay on until Zordon could be freed from his crystal prison, but she always seemed uneasy and out of place within the confines of the castle.

Dulcea looked as ill at ease as ever this morning, but Kimberly got the impression that Zordon, at least, was happy to see her. If he even could feel happy while he was still trapped in that crystal.

Kimberly wondered why that bit of Rita's magic had not yet come undone, and in the process realized that she no longer had any idea how to talk to either Dulcea or Zordon. Before, it had been easy. She had been Princess Kimberly, the same as she had always been. But now she was Queen Kimberly and everything had changed… except it did not feel like it.

Even though as the realm's ruling monarch she was now technically on even footing with them, she still felt a bit in awe of these people who were her friends and allies, but were not quite mortal. But after taking a few seconds to compose herself, she figured out what she needed to say. "I need your help."

"What troubles you?" Zordon asked. It was still beyond weird to hear his voice coming from the crystal, even weeks after first discovering his fate.

Dulcea indicated that she should seat herself in the suite's small sitting area, so she did. Dulcea sat in the chair opposite her, taking a light hold on Zordon's crystal and tipping it so he could see better. Kimberly felt suddenly foolish for bothering them with this. What if Tommy was right? She felt nervous deep in her gut, but she knew there was only one way to find out.

"I had a dream last night," she said quietly. It felt strange to confide this in someone other than Tommy, especially after he had failed to take her at all seriously. "It wasn't like any dream I've ever had before. I… I saw the First Queen. I _talked_ to her."

"It is not unheard of for the women in your family to be contacted by the spirits of their predecessors after their magic has been unlocked," Zordon said.

That was not what she had been expecting to hear at all. Sure, her mother had often told her that the Queens of old would guide her when she took the throne, but it had never occurred to her that her mother might have been speaking literally. "So wait, you mean that might have actually _been _the First Queen in my dream?"

"It is possible," Dulcea said when Zordon made no move to answer.

Kimberly mulled that over for a second. "But you don't know for sure, do you?"

"There is no way to know for certain if what you experienced was a true spirit contact or simply a dream," Zordon told her. "That is something you will have to discover for yourself."

Not exactly the answer she had been hoping for. She had hoped that Zordon or Dulcea would have some advice for her, something that could help her convince Tommy to listen to her. She was not sure why it was so important that she pay heed to the First Queen's words, not when Bryndis Hart had not actually told her anything… but it was.

She wanted to know what the sea was important, why the origin of the kingdom's first queen was important, what it all meant. She was pretty sure this was the first thing her newly unlocked magic had tried to tell her, and she did not want to take it as lightly as everyone else seemed to. She wanted answers.

"So if I want to find the answers for myself… I should follow her instructions and see what happens?"

She could tell by the look on Dulcea's face that this was not what they'd had in mind, but at least now she had a new argument to try on Tommy. Unfortunately, being the Queen had a huge downside, and that was that everyone suddenly wanted as much of her time as they could get. And when they didn't want her, they wanted Tommy. It was nearly impossible to spend any amount of time alone with him now, as she discovered that day. Someone was always pestering one or both of them. And while she knew that things would quiet down eventually as the new routine became established, she hated that she couldn't discuss this with him right away.

It had to wait until all of the day's duties had been seen to, and by then she and Tommy had other things on their minds. So it was not until they were lying in bed together, breathless and worn out from love-making, that she remembered to bring her dream up again.

"Dulcea and Zordon think this dream thing is something I have to figure out for myself," she said, glancing over belatedly to make sure Tommy hadn't already fallen asleep.

He had not. He was looking at her with somber eyes.

"You're really determined to do this, aren't you?" he asked with a sigh.

"Yes, and I'm going to do it whether you agree or not, so you may as well just agree."

Tommy chuckled. "Okay, fine, you win. What's the worst that could happen? We already beat a sorceress together. We can handle whatever your dreams are pointing us toward."

Kimberly smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "I knew you'd come around sooner or later."

"I've seen firsthand that there's no stopping you when you put your mind to something," he said.

"Well, I'm not going to apologize for it," she teased.

That finally got him to smile. "I'm not going to ask you to. If you weren't so damn stubborn, I wouldn't be your husband right now. You'd be stuck with Jason instead."

She made a face. "I'm glad you see the wisdom of doing things my way."

They began putting plans for the trip in place the next morning. Much to Kimberly's surprise, her advisers loved the idea. Not only would it give them all an excuse to get out of the city for a while (she was not pleased to find out that the entire court, or close enough, would be accompanying her on her honeymoon), it would give her and her husband a chance to see their kingdom firsthand – and be seen by their subjects.

She had not thought of it that way until they pointed it out, but it made sense. And she had to admit, she was happy that her dream had led her to a good decision she might otherwise not have thought of. In spite of that, she couldn't shake the feeling that Bryndis Hart had appeared in her dream for a completely different reason. It felt like there had to be more to it, that something deeper was at work here.

She was on her way out of the throne room after formally making the big announcement, still wondering what that mysterious something might be, when Jason pulled her aside and asked to speak privately. She had a few minutes before someone would come to drag her off to another boring meeting, so she nodded and led him to one of the smaller private audience chambers. "What is it?" she asked once they were alone.

"I'm going to find the Sword of Power."

By some miracle, she managed to keep from making a face. He really had a knack for bad timing. This was something she had been expecting; after hearing Dulcea's explanation, she had actually thought he would have mentioned it at some point during the trip back from Rita's tower, but for some reason he had chosen to keep silent about it until now. "Do you have any idea where to even start looking?"

"No," he said with a careless shrug. "But Dulcea does, and so does my dad."

She knew the smart thing to do would be to forbid him from going on this insane quest. He was one of her best friends and best knights, and he should stay close to home in case she or Tommy had need of him. But she couldn't forget the way her dream had made her feel. She couldn't forget the _compulsion _to find out what was going on, to understand what fate was trying to tell her. And she could tell just by looking at him that Jason was feeling that same conviction right now.

So instead of arguing with him, she found herself telling him, "Okay. Then you have my blessing. But I really think you should talk to Trini before you go running off to find your destiny."

He looked like he wanted to roll his eyes at her, but she glared him into submission. Both he and Trini had a bad habit of pretending she was wrong about them and the feelings they had for each other. She could see it so clearly; she really had no idea why they thought they had to hide it.

"Promise me you'll talk to her."

"I will," he said a bit grudgingly.

_And if she asks, you had better let her go with you, _Kimberly thought, but she knew better than to say it out loud. He would be much more likely to do what she wanted if he thought it was his idea to begin with.

He glared back at her for a moment, then gave a forced bow and took his leave. Kimberly watched him go in silence, wondering what in the world his problem was.

 

 

By the time a week had passed, Kimberly was feeling downright perturbed. Jason had acquired her permission to take Trini and Zack, as well as his parents, with him on his journey, and although she was sad to lose three friends at once, Kimberly was glad that they would at least be together. Even though she had to stay behind, she had Tommy to keep her company now, and hopefully Trini and Zack would be able to make sure Jason didn't get into too much trouble along the way.

Regarding her honeymoon, however, less progress had been made than she would have liked. Her stewards assured her that plans for the trip were "well underway", but they had no news to share with her. She knew that there was a certain protocol for things, but she still wished she had the luxury of just running off whenever she wanted.

She was tired of the court.

All she really wanted to do was spend time with Tommy, find enough time to actually move forward in her magic lessons with Dulcea, and go to the damned coast to see whatever it was her ancestor wanted her to see. She wished that the First Queen would come to her in a dream again so she could just ask for an answer, even though she knew she wouldn't get one. It would have been so much easier that way, but she had not seen Bryndis Hart since that first dream. In fact, she hadn't had any strange dreams after that at all.

In some ways, that was nice. It meant she slept through the night, without waking up with any strange ideas in her head, but it also left her feeling confused. The answers she wanted always seemed to be just beyond her reach.

Tommy seemed to sense her growing discontentment as the days went by. He started coming up with ways to snatch a few minutes together during the day, and he came up with small romantic gestures that brightened her days, at least for a little while. Having him near helped somewhat, and she had to admit that she loved it when he brought her flowers or even just left them where he knew she would find them, but even that wasn't enough to really make her feel better.

And her mood only seemed destined to get worse.

After her morning meetings, when all she wanted to do was go meet Tommy for a short lunch together, she was informed that, "Your Highness, there is a messenger here for you."

Kimberly kept her expression neutral despite the intense desire to scowl. There were messengers at the castle for her all the time, and none of them had any important news for her. Couldn't someone else take care of this?

The answer, it turned out, was no. And that was because this particular messenger came from the southern lands, the kingdom called Taye that had been closed to outsiders since Kimberly was a child. A messenger from the south was big news, and important.

The whispered words from her courtiers did little to prepare her for the reality of meeting her first foreign emissary, so she felt nervous as she approached the room where the messenger had been told to wait.

The man looked over as she entered, then promptly gave a deep bow. "Your Highness," he said, his voice only lightly accented. He did not look at her again until she bade him to rise.

"What news do you bring?" she asked.

"Very little, I am afraid," the man said apologetically. He went on, "I am Sunan Lin of the Silverwind caravan, of the noble land of Taye."

Kimberly suddenly realized that she knew nothing about this man or the trading caravan he claimed to serve, except that they came from outside her kingdom. She had brought only two guards to this audience with her, and wondered if she had anything to fear from this man. "Why have you come?" she asked.

"Not only to bring word of my caravan's approach," he assured her. From one of the many pouches at his belt, he produced a folded piece of paper, which he handed to her with a flourish.

"What is this?" she asked without opening it. It was dirty and faintly damp, and the address, or what she assumed was an address, was written in a script she could not read.

"It is a letter for one Trini Kwan, the daughter of my employer, who was sent here to foster with the Princess Kimberly in her childhood."

 

 

Trini was very rarely summoned for an audience with the Queen. Every time she went into an audience chamber at the behest of a ruling Queen, she felt like she had the very first time: young, supremely inexperienced, and terrified. She was no one special, just a servant. What in the world could a Queen want with her, even if that Queen was Kimberly Hart?

The castle had been abuzz about something all afternoon, but Trini had not been inclined to sort through the rumors to get to the bottom of it. Kimberly would let her know the truth of it soon enough, and in the meantime Trini'd had other things on her mind, like her upcoming journey with Jason and Zack. But now, with the royal summons in her hand, she had to face the fact that this hubbub might have something to do with her. There were only a few things that could mean, and she wasn't ready to deal with any of them.

Although she had no idea what the reason for the meeting was, she was thankful not to have to face Kimberly in front of the entire court. When she entered the audience chamber the first thing that caught her attention was the fact that, aside from a handful of guards, the only other people in the room were the Queen and a man she had not seen before. The man had the strikingly straight, jet black hair that marked him as coming from the far south… from her homeland.

Trini ignored him and the way her heart suddenly raced, and knelt in front of Kimberly.

"Oh, get up," Kimberly said with an impatient wave of her hand. "I don't need you kneeling before me, too."

Trini stood and smiled. "You are the Queen now," she pointed out.

"True, but there's no need for formalities when there's no one around to see," Kimberly retorted, handily ignoring the strange man. Trini realized with a bit of a shock that Kimberly was trying to show the stranger just how close she and Trini were. She decided to play along.

"If you insist, my friend."

Kimberly nodded. "I do." After a moment's pause, she went on, "This man is Sunan Lin from Taye. He has brought you a message."

Trini frowned. It was one thing to guess at a messenger's nationality based on his outward appearance, and another thing altogether to have it confirmed. Feeling suddenly a bit sick, she took the folded piece of paper that Kimberly offered. She skimmed the missive, acutely aware of the way the messenger simply watched her without saying a word, and her frown deepened. "I can't do this," she breathed.

"You can. If you want to, that is."

"Kimberly…"

The Queen gave her an earnest look. "I know how long it's been since you've seen your parents. I know how long it's been since you went home. If you want to go, I won't stop you."

Trini heard what she did not say: but I don't want you to. It was enough to make her head spin. "I need to think about this."

"Of course. Take as much time as you need," Kimberly said.

Trini was hardly aware of her friend's words; she couldn't get past the way the messenger was staring at her. It was all she could do not to shiver under that gaze. What was he thinking when he looked at her like that?

She resisted the urge to bow before Kimberly again, as would have been customary, and instead simply asked, "Do I have your permission to depart?"

"Yes," Kimberly said, adding a quiet, "Always."

And on that note, Trini fled. She was glad the messenger made no move to go after her. After the way his gaze had made her so uncomfortable, she did not want to even speak to him. Sure, she had been fostered here, far away from her family and homeland, but that did not make her some spectacle to be stared at. But once she was out of his presence she found that her irritation with the man dissipated quickly. He was just curious, that was all. She could hardly fault him for that, even if he was rude about it.

The rest of her day passed in a haze. She was rather embarrassed to find that her regular duties went untended because all of her attention was focused on the letter that she carried with her.

The letter from her parents. _Her parents._

They wanted her to come 'home', but this castle was the only home she could really remember. She'd been barely seven years old when they sent her north to be fostered with Kimberly. She could hardly even recall their faces, and though she could read it easily enough, she could only awkwardly speak in her own native tongue. The only member of her family that she remembered with any clarity was Uncle Li, and that was because he had come north with her and had stuck around to teach her how to fight and make sure she remembered her heritage. But he'd died suddenly just before her fourteenth birthday, leaving her all alone in the world.

In the years since then, she had surrounded herself with friends that had become like a second family. Kimberly, Billy and Katherine in the archives, Zack, Jason and his parents… The thought of leaving them made her heart ache.

And to be perfectly honest, she was nervous about going back to meet the rest of her real family. It wasn't just the prospect of a long and lonely journey surrounded by strangers that worried her. All things considered, she knew very little about her homeland or her parents. Her mother and father were wealthy merchants, and while they were not of noble blood, they had loved their only daughter enough to send her to be fostered with royalty in a faraway land. That was the extent of her knowledge, and a civil war in the south had made sure she'd had no way to keep in touch with her family, or find out more, over the years.

Even the Lord and Lady Scott, who had informally adopted her into their family after her uncle's death, had failed to get through on her behalf. Privately, they had recounted how magic prevented them from traveling past the border between the two kingdoms. For years it had simply been impossible to enter Taye at all.

After that, she had given up hope of ever hearing from her parents again. She had considered that they might even be dead. But now she had heard from them, and they wanted their daughter back.

_If I go, will they let me come back?_

She had no idea.

The letter made no mention of such an arrangement, but she had to wonder if her long lost parents wanted their daughter back because they wanted to see how she had grown up, or if it was because they had made a profitable marriage match for her. A horrified, paranoid, bitter part of her wanted to throw the letter into the nearest hearth fire and pretend she had never seen it at all. But she could not do that. She could not hide from this. Kimberly, and Sunan Lin, would be waiting for her answer.

She had no choice but to face this head on. With that in mind, she found a boy to carry a message to Jason for her, asking only that he meet her in their usual place after the dinner hour. Even though things between them had been less strained since he asked her to join him on his new quest, she was somewhat nervous about asking him to meet her in private. But it seemed her worries were in vain; he was waiting for her when she arrived at their little practice room beneath the castle.

She forced a smile onto her face when she saw him, but it faded quickly.

Jason knew immediately that something was not right. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I…" She couldn't bring herself to explain, so she practically shoved the letter from her parents into his hand. "A messenger brought… just look."

He unrolled the thick paper and frowned as he scanned the page. "Trini, I can't read this." She watched as it dawned on him: the flowing lines of that foreign alphabet could mean only one thing. "This is…"

"From my parents," she confirmed.

There was silence for a long time after that. He knew the circumstances regarding her homeland as well as she did.

"What do they want?" he asked at last.

She sighed, feeling a shudder run through her. "They want their daughter to come home now that things are stable again."

"They want you to go back," he repeated. He looked as dumbfounded as she felt, as if it had never really occurred to him that she might ever be asked to leave.

She nodded. "They sent a caravan. It's still a few days out, but it'll be here soon, and they'll want an answer from me. They want to reopen the trade routes, and they want… they want me to go back with the caravan when it leaves. But," she took a deep breath and let the words out, "I'd like to go with you first."

"You should go to them." His tone was gentle, but there was force behind his words. They didn't discuss it much anymore, but he had always felt it a great injustice that she should be so isolated from her family, and in the past he had never been shy about telling her so.

"Jason…" she trailed off, not sure what to say that she had not already said. She could feel a deep and horrible loneliness sprouting up inside her heart. If she was going to go anywhere, she wanted it to be with him and her other friends, but she couldn't find the words to tell him.

Sensing her distress, he let the letter fall to the ground so he could take her hands in his.

Trini stared at their joined hands in silence for a moment. "I've waited this long to see my parents again. I can wait a little longer so I can join you in your quest first. Damn it, Jason. How can you expect me to just _go_, knowing I abandoned you?" she demanded, finally finding her voice.

"Because," he said slowly. She was suddenly very much aware of his presence so close to her; as he leaned down to meet her gaze, his dark eyes guileless and shining in the candlelight, her world seemed to dwindle to nothing else but the two of them. Caught up in the moment, she nearly forgot to breathe, and all thoughts of arguing with him went skittering out of her head.

"If you don't come back to me after taking care of whatever it is your parents want," he went on, "I'm going to come looking for you. That's a promise."

And he sealed that promise with a kiss.

 

 

Jason waited until Trini had gone, then leaned against the wall with a groan. He was glad no one else ever came down to this part of the castle, because it meant no one but Trini had seen what an idiot he'd just been.

Kissing her like that had been risky, not to mention stupid. He supposed he was lucky she hadn't decked him for it.

But in the heat of the moment, it had seemed like the right thing to do.

They were about to part ways. It would be the longest they had been apart since they first met. He wanted her to think he was ready for anything, that he was calm and in total control of the situation, that his planned journey was no big deal – and that hers wouldn't be, either. He wanted her to feel as confident as he did that they would meet again.

And the way she had been looking at him, her expression a little bit lost and a little bit scared, like she needed some sort of reassurance… He hadn't been able to resist. He'd had to see what it would be like to kiss her. And since it had seemed very much like now or never, he'd thrown caution to the wind and…

It had been worth the risk.

The fact that she had not only not hit him for it, but had kissed him back, seemed like a miracle. It would have blown his mind that she'd then agreed to go find out what her parents wanted, if he hadn't been so giddy and distracted from kissing her.

Grinning like a fool now, he went over it all in his head, savoring every moment. He wanted very much to do that again, but he wasn't sure how far he could push his luck.

He wasn't sure how far he _should_ push his luck. His journey in search of the Sword of Power was likely to be dangerous. He would need to focus on the task at hand. He wouldn't be able to afford distractions, even if the source of those distractions was Trini.

On second thought, maybe it was a good thing she wasn't going with him.

He discarded that thought almost immediately. He just couldn't believe it. And he knew that if she wasn't with him, he would always be worrying and wondering about how she was doing. He was already worried about her.

They had some time yet before they would go their separate ways, but it felt like they had already said good-bye. It would be weeks yet before the caravan was ready to return to the south, and in all likelihood he would be departing around the same time. He might even leave before she did.

His thoughts still preoccupied by the future, he headed back up to the inhabited parts of the castle. While he was positive that sending Trini to meet her parents was the right thing to do, he hated the idea that she would be alone on the trip. Trini was a very competent woman - and skilled in self defense - but she couldn't do everything all by herself. It would have been so much easier if he could have just gone with her...

And then he had it. He knew what he had to do.

It was later than he'd thought when he emerged from the depths of the castle. It took some hunting, but he finally managed to find Zack.

He was in one of the castle's common areas, which was deserted at this hour, talking with Angela. Seeing that the two were alone and he was about to interrupt, Jason felt a pang of guilt, but he wanted to take care of this now, so there was no helping it.

"Hey, Zack, got a minute?"

Looking perplexed by the request as much as the sudden interruption, Zack excused himself from Angela and headed over to where Jason was waiting. The look on his face suggested that he'd been about to get lucky with his girl. "This better be good, Jase," he said skeptically.

"It is. I've got a big favor to ask…"

 

 

Aisha was waiting when Trini finally returned to her room for the night. She had spoken with Kimberly earlier, and the things the Queen had told her worried her. _The messenger is from the south. He wants to take Trini away._

It was obvious that Kimberly didn't want Trini to go, and Aisha shared the Queen's trepidations. This seemed really sudden. She would almost say "suspicious".

_Her parents abandon her here for years and years without a word, and then they just send a messenger one day and expect her to come running? _Aisha knew she was probably being unfair, that there were other circumstances at work here that were beyond Trini's parents' control, and that she was letting her own past experiences cloud her judgment. But she also knew just how scary it could be to run off to a strange land. She'd done it herself, once upon a time. Of course, she had been running _away_ from home at the time, not back to it.

She looked up as the door opened and Trini slipped in.

"Aisha? What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"No. I just wanted to talk to you."

Trini seated herself on the bed, facing Aisha. "Kimberly told you about the messenger today, didn't she?"

Aisha gave a wry smile. "Pretty much everybody knows at this point. It's big news."

"Yeah." Trini sighed. "Aisha, what do you think I should do?"

She tried to keep her expression neutral. "I think you shouldn't rush into anything."

Trini's face was unreadable. "Aisha, if I asked you to take my ring and defend Kimberly in my place... would you do it?"

She had not really ever thought about it. Of course she would defend Kimberly with her life; Kimberly was more than just the Queen of the realm, she was a friend. But she had never considered taking Trini's place as Kimberly's defender, and she did not like the sound of this hypothetical question. "I don't know."

"I won't be able to protect her if I go to my parents," Trini pointed out. She met Aisha's gaze and held it for a moment. "But you can."

The intensity in her gaze made Aisha uncomfortable. She looked away. "Why are you bringing this up? I thought you couldn't even take the ring off."

"Only because I didn't know how. Dulcea showed me how to do it. Please, say you'll take it."

Aisha wished that Trini had brought Dulcea with her. There were so many questions she wanted to ask... "This isn't something you should do lightly," she protested.

Trini's only response was to close her eyes, her brow furrowing in intense concentration. She took hold of her ring, the magic ring that Kimberly had given her, and when she tugged on it, the chain that secured it around her wrist snapped and disappeared. She held her hand out, the ring cradled in the palm. "I want you to go with Kimberly in my place. And I want you to take this. Use it to keep her safe. Please."

Aisha stared at her for a moment before reluctantly taking the ring from her. "You're really not going to go with her?"

"No, I..." Trini trailed off, looking impossibly sad. "Kimberly and Jason think I should go to my parents."

Aisha suspected that it was mostly Jason saying Trini should go, though she did not say as much. Instead, she bowed her head and closed her hand around the ring. "I'm honored that you would choose me to carry this for you," she said. The words had a bitter taste. "But Trini, if you don't want to go..."

"I know. And if I didn't want to, I wouldn't. I just wish this hadn't happened _now_."

She looked so lost and frightened that Aisha wanted nothing more than to go talk some sense into Kimberly and Jason on her behalf. It should never have come to this, and Trini should not have to do this alone. If not for her obligations to Kimberly, Aisha would have volunteered to go with her in a heartbeat. But she could not abandon Kimberly.

Aisha let her gaze fall to her hand, which was still closed around Trini's ring. She couldn't bring herself to put it on. "I really don't know about this."

"Please," Trini repeated. Aisha really wished she wouldn't keep asking. "I want to know, when I go, that I've done everything I could to keep Kimberly safe while I'm gone. I don't know who else to turn to."

"What happens if I agree?"

"Then you put the ring on, and its power should become yours to use. But Dulcea told me to warn you that once you put it on, you cannot take it off again."

Aisha frowned. "But you just took it off."

"She told me a reason for that, too," Trini said. She thought for a moment, searching her memory. "She told me that the power in this gem is a binding power, so it doesn't unbind very easily. The only reason it did now... is because I only unbound it to give it to someone else."

"Can I ever give it back?"

"I don't know," Trini admitted, and sighed. "Now that I've given it up, I don't know if I can ever take it back. You would have to ask Dulcea about that."

Aisha let her fingers uncurl from the ring and looked at it closely. It really did not look like anything special. It was pretty enough, with its almost golden topaz, but nothing spectacular. But she knew what it meant. She had seen what this ring's power could do, she had heard how it had saved not just Trini's life, but Jason's as well, and how it had done so more than once. By giving that power up, possibly forever, Trini had made a huge sacrifice.

And now Aisha was still not sure she wanted to take that power and use it in her place. Taking Trini's place meant she would be free to travel with Kimberly, and that she would be better equipped to do that. But it also meant she would be _taking Trini's place_. And that was where the apprehension and doubt crept in.

_Trini, you are Kimberly's best friend, and you always will be, no matter what happens. Please don't ever think that I want to replace you._

She looked deep into Trini's eyes, but did not see even a hint of resentment there, only a deep and lingering regret.

Aisha bowed her head again and slipped the ring onto her finger.

 

 

Whatever Zack had been expecting Jason to say, this was not it.

"You want me to leave?" he asked, at a complete loss.

Jason gave him a serious look. "That's what I said."

"Look, bro, I know you think you're doing the right thing here, but -"

"I don't want her to have to go alone."

_So go with her yourself,_ Zack thought, scowling. But he knew Jason would not be willing to delay his own quest, so he saw no point in arguing. And besides, he didn't want Trini to have to go alone, either. Of course, he didn't want her to have to go at all. The part that left him really flabbergasted was that it would only take a word from Jason to change it all, and instead he was choosing to just let her go. _Man, what's gotten into you lately, Jase?_

It was almost like he didn't realize that if they let her go back to her parents, they might never see her again. But then again maybe that was why Jason was so insistent that someone go with her: to make sure she really would come back.

"You know I don't want to miss out on this quest of yours. What are you going to do the next time you run into Scorpina, if I'm not there to watch your back?"

Jason shrugged. "I don't know. But I do know there's no one I trust more than you to make sure Trini comes back in one piece."

Zack couldn't argue with that. After Jason, he did consider himself the best candidate for such a task. But he still wished that Jason would just let them go with him instead of insisting that Trini answer this summons from her parents. He also wondered how in the world Jason had convinced her to go in the first place. She could do that later, and in the meantime the three of them could find Jason's destiny _together_, instead of going their separate ways and always wondering how the others fared.

"If I do this," he said, though by this point they both knew he would, "you have to give me your word that you're not going to do anything stupid and end up getting yourself killed."

Jason smiled at that and they shook on it. "You got it. You have my word that I'm not going to do anything stupid or get myself killed."

Zack eyed him suspiciously, but in the end he was satisfied. There was no accounting for the bizarre and dangerous situations that tended to crop up wherever Jason went, but at least he had promised not to deliberately put himself in danger. It was the best he was likely to get out of Jason.

"Okay. I'll go with her. But I still don't like this idea at all."

"I'm not asking you to like it. I just have to know that there's someone with her to keep her safe."

Zack let it go at that. He knew better than to push his luck, at least for the moment. There would be time to tackle this again later, when Jason might be more easily persuaded to reconsider.

When he returned to Angela, her face was lined with concern. "What happened? You look upset."

"Change of plans," he sighed, and told her all about it.

A couple of days later, he was invited to a secret ceremony where Kimberly presented Jason with an enchanted ruby from the royal crown. This time, Zack was happy to see, Jason graciously accepted the Queen's gift.

Zack felt better knowing that Jason would have the gem's protection on his quest; he was less pleased to find out that Trini, with some help from Dulcea, had given her own gem to Aisha. But it was too late for him to worry about that, so he just hoped she wouldn't end up needing it.

While the rest of the court prepared to follow Kimberly on her trip, Zack made a point of getting to know the men who worked for the Silverwind caravan. Their leader, Sunan, was a somber, serious fellow, but the rest of the crew were a fun lot. It was sometimes difficult to communicate with them, since they didn't always speak his language well and he didn't speak theirs at all, but they were mischievous and clever, just the sort of men he could get along with. He liked them, and spent several evenings gaming with them at one or another of the city's inns.

The time seemed to fly by all too quickly. Before he knew it, and definitely before he was ready, it was time to bid farewell to the King and Queen and their entourage. The day was not without fanfare (nothing Kimberly did as Queen went without pomp), but to Zack it seemed depressing. It meant he had to say good-bye to nearly everyone he held dear, and so did Trini.

Angela and her family would accompany the Queen, and so would most of the kingdom's influential families. Jason and his parents would be going along as well, though they intended to proceed eastward from there. Aisha, Rocky, and Adam were going with Kimberly as a matter of course, since Trini had specifically asked them to protect the Queen in her absence. Even Billy and Katherine from the archives were being dragged along, so they could continue to instruct Tommy in the law of the realm.

The castle seemed empty, almost spooky, with so many people gone.

By the time the day of his own departure finally arrived, Zack was actually feeling impatient about it. The way he saw it, the sooner they headed south and met up with Trini's parents, the sooner they could deal with the situation and come back home.

Their departure went unremarked. The common denizens of the city did not much care if a knight sought his fortune in far-off Taye, and most of the court was already long gone. Glancing over and seeing the tears Trini was trying to hide, he decided that maybe it was better that way.

Since Kimberly had outfitted them all with horses, in addition to the beasts that pulled the caravan's massive carts, they made fairly good time for the first few days on the road. They stayed in luxurious inns where they could and camped in the open as they drew further south and away from large towns.

For the most part, Zack let himself simply enjoy being on the road again. After a few days, even Trini started to cheer up. She made a point of talking to the caravan men in their language, so she could practice using it again, and even started teaching Zack how to say a few things.

The days turned into weeks until they finally reached the border. There, they stopped to spend a night in the ramshackle town that had once been a bustling border city. Little of its former finery remained, but the people there were still friendly and kind, and had hopes that trade with Taye would soon resume.

But Zack felt a bit uneasy that night when he and Trini sat down to dinner at the town's only remaining inn and their companions from the caravan were nowhere to be found.

"Where is everyone?" Zack asked as the innkeeper's wife brought their food.

Trini shrugged. "I haven't seen them all afternoon."

He had only taken a few bites of his dinner when he heard Trini groan. "Zack," she mumbled. He glanced up from his plate and realized she suddenly looked very ill. "Zack, I think I'm gonna be sick. Help... help me get back to my room..." She blinked rapidly several times and swayed in her seat.

Zack practically jumped to his feet, intending to hurry to her side, but it when he got up it was all he could do to stay upright. He was suddenly overwhelmed by dizziness and a vague but growing realization: there was something in the food. They were being drugged.

He staggered over to Trini, wondering if he ought to be getting ready for a fight. By the time he reached her, Trini had already let her head fall against the table and seemed to be sound asleep. Her eyes were closed, but he could see that she was still breathing.

"No, Trini, come on, wake up," he urged. "We have to get out of here."

By now he was aware that their traveling companions - their captors - had entered the room, gathering around them in a ring. Late evening sunlight filtered through dingy windows to glint off drawn blades. "What the hell did you do to us?" he demanded, but he received no answer, only stony stares.

He turned and tried to draw his sword, but he wasn't wearing it. He had only his belt knife, and the drug's effects were strong enough now that he couldn't even manage to close his hand around the hilt. He looked down at the blade, still sheathed at his belt, and then back up in confusion as his senses dimmed even further. Sunan stepped closer, looking inexplicably threatening, and Zack instinctively moved backward.

He misjudged the step. His ankle twisted awkwardly. Pain shot distantly up his leg, which gave way beneath his weight. Unable to keep himself from falling, Zack hit the floor hard and knew no more.


	25. Chasing Dreams

Kimberly stood on the beach, wet sand beneath her bare feet and waves lapping gently around her ankles, and watched the sun rise. She was not normally a morning person, but she had awakened early this morning and been unable to get back to sleep. Rather than bother Tommy, she had slipped out to the beach alone.

It was quiet here, away from the docks and the town's early risers. But although this place was lovely, it had brought her no answers. The town was pleasant enough, if a bit crowded with all the members of her court jammed in, but it was nothing like the wild, overgrown coastline from her dream. And her ancestor had made no further appearances since that first dream. She was at a loss.

The sky faded from pink to blue, and she knew she should go back to the inn. When he woke up and found her missing, Tommy would worry. She turned away from the sea, intending to go back, and saw him coming down the beach toward her. He did not look scared or upset, just resigned.

"Did you have another dream?" he asked when he reached her.

She shook her head. "I just couldn't sleep."

"You'll figure this out eventually," he assured her.

She hugged her arms around her middle. "We're only going to be here for a few more days." It didn't seem like enough time.

"I believe in you."

She was glad someone did; she was really starting to second guess her intuition. She let him hold her for a few moments, drawing emotional strength from his presence. Soon they would have to go back and face their duties, such as they were, but for now they could just enjoy this rare moment alone.

It was over too fast, but she let Tommy convince her that going back to town and playing the part of responsible Queen would be the best option for the day. Aisha met them as they headed back into town.

Kimberly paused at the edge of the road to put her shoes back on. "So, how many people have I upset so far today?" she asked.

"None yet," Aisha told her, sounding proud. "But it's still early."

She was right. Considering this was supposed to be a vacation, the various members of her court still wanted their share of her time, and they became quite irate if she was unwilling to give it to them. And while she understood that the kingdom still needed to be governed, she would have liked a few hours of peace in which to figure out what to do next.

"I'm running out of time," she muttered.

Tommy shot Aisha a pointed look, but got no response.

"There's something here that I'm supposed to find, but I'm not finding it," Kimberly declared in utter frustration.

Her stomach rumbled loudly into the silence that followed her outburst.

"Let's talk about this after breakfast," Tommy suggested, guiding her with a hand at her elbow.

She would have preferred to discuss it now, but let him lead her back to the inn anyway. Being a brat about it wouldn't get her any answers (although it might make her feel better), and she did need to eat. Whatever challenges lay ahead of her today, she would need her energy to face them.

By the time they got back to the inn, she thought she had managed to resign herself to the day's duties. She was wrong.

The Scotts were preparing to depart.

She had known all along that Jason and his parents would not be coming home with the rest of the court, and nor would Dulcea. They would be heading east across the sea, seeking the mythical Sword of Power. Knowing this had not prepared Kimberly for having to actually bid them farewell. She had already lost Trini and Zack to destiny's call. She hated to have to let Jason go, too.

Her appetite disappeared, replaced by a sick feeling. It seemed as if she might soon have no one left but Tommy.

"Kim, you okay?" he asked suddenly.

She nodded, even though she felt anything but okay. The last thing she needed was for some fool to walk by at the wrong moment, see her feeling ill, and start some rumor about her being indisposed or, worse, pregnant.

Seeing how upset she was, Aisha leaned close to assure her, "They'll come back."

And suddenly Kimberly was no longer sure that it was Jason's impending departure, and the possibility that he and his parents wouldn't come back, that was upsetting her so much. It almost felt like the thing that upset her the most... was that she wasn't going with them.

Trying her best to ignore the feeling, she let Tommy lead her upstairs to the suite they were sharing. They bid subdued farewell to Aisha, for now, on the way.

The moment they were alone in their suite, Tommy went on the defensive. "No," he said. "I don't know what you're thinking, but no."

Kimberly glared at him. "If you don't know what I'm thinking, how do you know it's a bad idea?"

He must have seen the change that came over her a few minutes ago when she saw the Scotts getting ready to leave. And while he might not be able to know exactly what she was thinking, he probably had a pretty good idea. And he didn't seem to like it one bit. "You can't just go with them, Kim. Even if I wanted to let you go, you're the Queen now. You have responsibilities."

She looked down at the floor to hide her frown. She knew that. And it wasn't as if she hadn't had responsibilities as a Princess... "I know," she found herself saying. "And you're right. I can't go. But back there... I had the sudden feeling that my dream wasn't pointing me to the end of a journey, but to the beginning."

She knew he had been hoping she would not say that, that she would not be so determined to pursue this, so she gave him a wide-eyed pleading look - and watched his resolve crumble that much further. She could tell that he wanted to help her get to the bottom of all this, but he was also taking his duty as the King seriously. And that meant he was trying to resist her, because according to the court that was the right thing to do. Her pleading look slowly turned into a pout.

"At least eat your breakfast," he said into the gloomy silence that had descended. The breakfast, left forgotten on the small side table in their suite, looked beautiful but totally unappetizing.

Resigned to her fate, at least for the moment, she did as he asked. But she used eating as an excuse to remain silent and think. There had to be something she could do to make this half-formed dream happen, and by the time she finished eating the last morsel of food from her plate, she thought she had it. Without giving Tommy a chance to protest, she bolted for the door. "I'm going to talk to Dulcea and Lord Scott about this!" she told him over her shoulder on her way out.

She did not slow down or look back to see what Tommy's response might be. She had a mission and, now, a plan of action, and nobody was going to stop her.

 

 

"This," Aisha announced cheerfully, "is not going to end well."

Rocky looked over to where Aisha was standing in the doorway and heard Adam sigh. He did not have to look to know Adam was glaring at him as he indulged Aisha. "What happened?"

"I think Kimberly is finally figuring out that dream of hers." She left the doorway to take a seat at the tiny table that had been wedged into the room's far corner, and started lazily peeling an apple. Rocky hoped for her sake that she wasn't intending to eat that; he'd learned the hard way that the apples here tasted roughly as appealing as sand.

"And?" Adam prompted, seeing that Rocky was too busy being horrified on Aisha's behalf to respond himself.

Aisha smirked. "I was right."

"Of course you were," Rocky said automatically.

Adam was not so quick to accept that. "You really think she's going to try to go with Jason?"

Aisha set her apple and knife down. "It wouldn't surprise me, after the way she acted when she saw him and his parents getting ready to leave this morning."

There was something strange about that, but Adam hit on it a moment before Rocky did. "But I thought she was in love with Tommy, not Jason."

Aisha sighed, as if he had just asked a very dumb question. "This has nothing to do with who she loves," she explained. "She is at a crossroads of destiny."

Rocky did not have to ask what she meant by that. She'd explained the concept enough in the past that he thought he could piece together what she was getting at now. The way Aisha told it, destiny was not the fixed thing that Kimberly thought it was. It was fluid and changeable, affected by all the choices she made from one day to the next. Some of those choices just had bigger effects than others, or at least that was how Aisha put it.

"It's not like they're going to let her go," Adam commented. "She's the Queen."

"That didn't stop her before," Aisha pointed out, grinning wickedly.

Rocky groaned. "Please tell me you're not going to help her stow away on the ship or something."

That earned him a laugh from Aisha, while Adam grumbled, "Don't give her any ideas."

Rocky shot him a look. "Like she needs my help."

"Hey, hey," Aisha admonished. "No need to be jealous of my brilliant mind."

"Brilliant, or devious?" Rocky asked. "You know it's not going to end well if you get caught helping the Queen run away."

The mood in the room suddenly went from teasing to completely sober.

"Who says I'd get caught?" Aisha asked. Rocky wondered if she realized that she was fussing with the hem of her sleeve, where Trini's ring was concealed.

"You might," he insisted.

She locked eyes with him and refused to back down. He looked away first, meeting Adam's sympathetic gaze. "The important thing is that I help Kimberly do what she needs to do. Trini asked me to protect her, and that's what I intend to do."

"So protect her," Rocky said. "Don't help her with some crazy scheme."

"I know how to get by," Aisha retorted bitterly. Rocky hated to hear her talk that way; it reminded him of how they'd first met. It had been a chance encounter at a country festival, he the pampered lordling and she the dirt-covered girl in peasant's clothes. At first her blunt and feisty personality, so unlike the noble-born girls he'd known, had taken him aback, but it hadn't taken her long to win her way into his heart.

Oblivious to his reminiscing, Aisha added, "I'm not sure Kimberly does."

"There is a difference between 'getting by' and getting thrown in the castle dungeon," Adam pointed out. Rocky couldn't have agreed more.

Aisha frowned. "I'm not planning for anything bad to happen. I'm not even really planning anything. But if Kimberly needs my help, I'm going to do whatever I can to help her."

 

 

Jason was with his father, supervising the loading of supplies onto their chartered ship, when the Queen found them. He felt a momentary apprehension at the sight of her, a worry that she might have come to tell them that she had changed her mind and would not allow them to go after all. But all she wanted was to speak to Jason and his parents in private.

Frowning even as he obeyed, Jason followed Kimberly and his father back to the inn where the highest-ranking members of the royal court were staying. This must be about something important for Kimberly to have come for them herself and to insist on complete privacy, but at the same time he had a nagging feeling she was up to no good.

A short while later, when his mother, along with Zordon and Dulcea, had been summoned and the six of them were locked away in the Scotts' suite, Kimberly finally told them what was on her mind.

"I was wrong," she said.

"Wrong?" prompted Lady Scott.

"This wasn't the answer," Kimberly went on. "I mean... it wasn't the end of my quest. I think... I think it's just the beginning."

Jason felt his heart sink. Kimberly just couldn't seem to leave well enough alone, and now she was going to try to drag him and his parents into her latest scheme. "Kimberly," he said warningly. She glared at him, undeterred.

Lord Scott remained silent, but exchanged a significant look with Dulcea. Jason wondered what they knew that he did not. They did not seem inclined to clue him in.

"I'm serious!" Kimberly protested, as if that would somehow make everything clear.

"So why are you telling us this?" Jason asked.

Kimberly met his gaze and stared him down. "Take me with you. Whatever I'm looking for, it's not here. It's on the other side of the sea."

"No," Jason said immediately.

At the same time, his father said, "As you wish, your highness."

Jason glared at his father, feeling utterly betrayed. He could think of a hundred reasons why this was a terrible idea, not the least of which was that he did not want to spend his journey babysitting a runaway queen, and why this was not the time to be blinding accepting Kimberly's authority. But his father seemed as untroubled as ever, and Kimberly was not about to question her good luck. Instead, she kept pushing forward.

"Then, Lord Scott, may I ask you to stand as my regent again in my absence?"

"Am I the only one that thinks this is a bad idea?" Jason interjected before his father could answer.

The looks his companions turned on him told him that yes, he was. The only question was why. Jason hated being left in the dark like this and glared at them all, undeterred by their bizarre behavior or his parents' reluctance to explain themselves. If he was going to be a part of this madness, he thought he at least deserved to know why.

Ignoring his son's irritation, Lord Scott told Kimberly, "I am at your command, your highness."

"Wonderful!" Kimberly responded, unable to disguise her glee.

While she and the others gathered around the large table that dominated the suite's sitting room, Jason hung back and refused to take part. He had never felt that his parents were helping him plan this trip with the intention of back out at the last moment, but now he was forced to consider the possibility that this had been their plan all along. Something must have convinced them to allow Kimberly to go in their place, but what? And when?

At least he could venture a guess as to why no one had informed him of this turn of events: he wanted no part of this. He wanted to go in search of his destiny, if that was even what it was, and he had not planned on doing that and having to keep Kimberly safe at the same time.

As his parents continued to work on their plans with the Queen, Jason looked to Dulcea. Her expression was as unreadable as ever, but somehow he knew she was behind his parents' strange actions. She must have been the one that had turned the tables in Kimberly's favor, but he couldn't imagine how she might have done it.

Jason struggled against his rising anger. Although he tried to keep his attention on the changes being made to the plan, he couldn't help but miss Zack and Trini. They had always been his truest allies and closest friends, but they were far away on a quest of their own and could not support him now. He would have to find a way out of this mess on his own.

Protesting had done him no good at all, so he waited until Kimberly and Dulcea had departed and he could confront his parents without their influence.

"What do you know that you're not telling me?" he demanded.

His father gave him a wry look; his mother pretended innocence. "What do we know about what?"

"This. Kimberly." He was not quite sure how to explain it without sounding completely paranoid.

"We don't know anything for certain," his mother assured him. "All we have is a few vague suspicions."

He had a feeling it was more than that, but knew at this point that he wasn't going to get any more information out of them. They had made up their minds to help Kimberly for reasons of their own; he only wished he understood what those reasons were. Even he knew that letting Kimberly leave her kingdom was a huge risk. "This had better be worth it," he muttered.

"It might be, and it might not," his father said with a careless shrug.

Surely they should see that something was very wrong when their son, who was well aware of his reputation for impetuousness, was acting as the voice of reason. But since they did not, Jason took his leave of their suite and went to find Zordon and Dulcea. He doubted that he could make them see things his way, but at least Zordon might be more willing to explain himself to the likes of Jason.

He wished that they had been able to free the sorcerer from his crystal prison, so they could have met without Dulcea being present, but he was willing to take what he could get. So he was quite surprised that, when he asked to speak to Zordon, Dulcea pulled the chain over her head and handed the crystal to him.

"You're not going to stick around?" he asked.

"You wished to speak with him privately, did you not?"

"Yeah," Jason admitted, wondering how she knew. But she was already gone, and he was not sure it would be a good idea to ask anyway.

"Something is troubling you greatly," Zordon observed.

Jason looked at the crystal in his hand and thought he saw Zordon's face in its milky-white depths. "Yeah," he said. "My parents aren't acting like themselves."

"You mean because they agreed to Kimberly's wishes?"

"They didn't even argue with her. They didn't even ask any questions. They just agreed to whatever she wanted," Jason pointed out. They were the ones that had always tried to teach him to think before acting, but now they seemed to be ignoring their own advice. "I don't understand."

"Your parents did not ask questions because I advised them not to."

"But why? And why not say anything to me?" There were a dozen questions he had intended to ask, but in his anger and frustration this was the one that came spurting out first. It seemed like no one was willing to tell him anything anymore.

"This is a question of destiny," Zordon explained after thinking for a while. "Kimberly is propelled by forces she does not yet - and may never - understand."

"Then let me put it bluntly: I don't care what anyone says, I'm not taking Kimberly with me if I don't know why."

"I cannot give you specifics, Jason. Believe me, if I could, I would. But I know little more than what I have told your parents."

"Well, why don't you start by telling me why you say this is a question of destiny for Kimberly," Jason suggested.

"I have long suspected that Kimberly's line, the Harts, is connected to another family of the same name that lived many centuries ago," Zordon began. "It was many, many years ago, but there was a powerful family named Hart that once existed in the land across the sea. But at some point in the distant past, that family disappeared, and now there is a line of Hart monarchs in this land."

Jason frowned. That sounded odd, but he could not make heads or tails of it. "So the whole family just up and moved? But why would they do that?"

"War," was Zordon's simple answer.

"War?" Jason repeated. "But wouldn't we have records of something like that? We have the archives..."

"The archives are unfortunately very incomplete -"

"But if you could help fill in the gaps, why don't you?"

"Because I do not know if the things I remember are true memories. I may be wrong."

"Why don't you know?" Jason pressed. He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Zordon own up to it.

"I am old enough to know these things, and to have witnessed them firsthand," Zordon admitted. "But you know the cost of my long lifespan." He paused, waiting for confirmation from Jason.

"Yes. Immortality comes with a price. All immortals must withdraw from the world every few thousand years or so and sleep." He'd been only a child the first time Zordon explained his strange habits to him. He had not forgotten in the meantime. "So you were asleep when this stuff all happened?"

"No. But what is not often revealed is that when we immortals sleep, we forget."

"Forget?"

"Not our magic and not the ways of the gods, but the minor details of the world around us. We exist unchanging for thousands upon thousands of years; it is not necessary for us to remember the small things for very long. They can be protected permanently in our memories, but why?" Zordon seemed determined to answer all of Jason's questions with more questions, but this time he did not seem to expect an answer. "I was not asleep when these things occurred. I lapsed into my sleep a few years later, I think, and when I awoke, the world had changed. Some things had escaped my memory of their own accord, and others had changed so drastically as to be unrecognizable."

"How could you just forget something like the founding of a new kingdom?"

Zordon sighed. "Jason, you have only lived a few years and have only ever known one single, very sheltered reality, but I will tell you this: kingdoms rise and fall. They are not as static and unchanging as your situation and mortal lifespan have led you to believe. You may find that out for yourself in the near future, as this is not only a question of Kimberly's destiny, but yours as well."

Jason did not like the idea that his destiny might be intertwined with Kimberly's, but he did want to know more about what might be lying ahead of him, and Zordon had been quite reluctant to discuss that until now. "So then you mean our destinies are tied together."

"Possibly. But it would be dangerous to assume so."

He was beginning to think he would never get a straight answer out of anyone ever again when something else occurred to him. "Wait, you didn't tell Kimberly any of this either, did you?"

"It is best, for the moment, that Kimberly remain ignorant."

"If you know something about her future, it's not fair not to tell her," Jason pointed out.

"You are correct. It is not fair that I should tell you, and not her, what I know. But Kimberly possesses great power, and it is within her ability to create a self-fulfilling prophecy." Jason did not like the sound of that, a bad feeling that Zordon confirmed when he went on to say, "I must use great care and discretion when dealing with her. If I tell her of all my suspicions, she may accidentally bring destruction down upon the entire world."

Jason stared at him for a moment, speechless. Finally, he managed to make his brain work enough to ask, "She has that kind of power?"

"Yes."

All the other questions he had meant to ask when right out of Jason's head with Zordon's simple affirmation. "She can't," he protested. "If she did have that kind of power, everyone would know about it."

"Everyone does, to an extent," Zordon explained. "It is well known that the Queen protects the realm. Exactly how she protects the realm is less well known, and that is a precaution taken years ago to protect the women of her line. Whether she knows it or not, Kimberly is a sorceress. Every woman in her family going all the way back to the First Queen has been a sorceress, and they have all been very powerful ones, at that."

"But I thought that sorcerers were... like you." Until now, every sorcerer that Jason had heard of had also been immortal. Granted, he had only ever encountered three sorcerers so far, and that number included Zordon. "Does that mean Kimberly's going to end up like you?" Almost immediately, he decided that, "No, she can't. Her mother didn't. And neither did her grandmother or any of her ancestors. They all lived normal lives."

"Kimberly, like her ancestors before her, is a mortal human. And that is why her power puts her in great danger. Mortal sorcerers are exceedingly rare, typically there is less than one in any human generation, but when they exist their power is near limitless. It is for her own good that she not learn what power is in her possession."

"But... why?" Jason wasn't sure he believed what Zordon was telling him about Kimberly. If she had such great power, couldn't she have destroyed Rita Repulsa on her own, without putting herself or anyone else in danger? Couldn't she have done so many things for the good of herself and her people? It seemed that if she had power like this, she should be using it...

But Zordon's voice was cold and resigned. "If she ever fully learns to control her power, she will most likely be hunted down and slain by other sorcerers such as myself. That much power in the hands of one mortal could unbalance the world."

"If it's so dangerous for her to have this power, why are you letting her leave? Wouldn't she be safest back at home?"

"It is her power - and her ancestor - that prompts her to do this. Attempting to keep her from obeying its commands would be futile. The power would find a way."

"You talk as if this power is something that's not actually a part of her..."

"It is not. Kimberly's power is great, but not natural. It is an ability passed down from mother to daughter, not at birth, but upon the death of the mother. It is power that was harnessed centuries ago, that remains bound to this day, but it is not something that Kimberly was born with. Despite what she may believe, it is not a part of her. It is an ability that she has, a skill that she can use which others cannot."

Suddenly Jason realized that he should have suspected all of this from the beginning. "That's why she couldn't use the power until she was married. Because whoever harnessed it built limits into it."

It was hard to tell through the haze of the crystal, but it looked like Zordon was pleased. "Yes." He went on, "At one time I believed that one of those limitations was an inability to pass beyond the borders of her kingdom, but certain recent... events... may have altered that limitation."

"Events?" Jason asked, even as it dawned on him. "She changed the rules of the game when she took those gems out of the crown."

Kimberly had replaced the missing stones in the crown, probably with gems from her own collection, but Zordon had not been fooled. "Exactly. I do not know precisely what she has altered, if she even consciously altered anything, or what the long-term consequences may be. That is why, for the time being, I must allow her to do what her power dictates, and why I must remain close enough to direct and protect her."

In spite of himself and his earlier anger, Jason found that his opinion on the matter of Kimberly had changed. Zordon's explanation had made him wonder: what might happen if they went on this journey and left her alone? He was not sure he wanted to find out. If the things Zordon had told him were true, and he had no doubt that they were, then Kimberly was in far greater danger than she had ever realized, just because of the power her heritage had bestowed on her.

It almost made him feel better to know that he'd be able to keep an eye on her - and look out for her. "Okay, Zordon," he said. "You've changed my mind. How do we make this happen?"

 

 

Tommy spent his morning deep in thought, doing his best to focus on his duties while faintly hoping that Kimberly wasn't getting into too much trouble without him. It wasn't easy to stay focused, not when his duties consisted of more boring law lessons with Billy and Katherine.

Those lessons were proceeding well, or at least that was what Billy told him. It did feel like he was getting a better grasp of the realm's laws and what was required of a ruling monarch, but he was still far from comfortable with his new role as King. On top of that, it felt a bit weird to spend so much time with Katherine after what had happened between them before, but since she seemed to be taking it all in stride, he was attempting to do the same. She was a nice enough girl without Rita's spell controlling her, and he didn't want her to feel awkward or upset because of what that spell had made her do.

In fact, he was hoping that they could be friends. She seemed just as smart and well-read as Billy, but without the tendency to start using lots of long words that Tommy had a hard time understanding. Having her around made life a lot easier for him.

With his mind occupied by these thoughts, he somehow managed to sneak back to the royal suite unnoticed after his morning lesson was done. He had been expecting to be ambushed along the way by someone or another wanting his attention, but nobody seemed to particularly want to talk to him today. And as far as he was concerned, that was a good thing. He'd always been a bit of a loner and had always preferred the solitude of the country to life in the city, so adjusting to life as the King - and being the center of attention - was difficult. He was glad for any peace and quiet he could get.

But it seemed like he had just shut the door to the suite when Kimberly came bursting through it in an excited rush. Tommy barely had time to realize what was going on before she flung herself into his arms and practically showered him with kisses. As much as he enjoyed her boundless enthusiasm, especially when it resulted in this kind of attention, he had to admit he was confused by her behavior. And then he remembered that she'd left him this morning in search of Lord Scott and Zordon.

"Good news?" he asked when she finally gave him a chance to breathe.

"Yes," she said, smiling. "Yes, yes, yes."

"Tell me about it," he said, wanting to share in her excitement.

"They're going to let us go in their place."

It took a moment for that to sink in. "What?"

"I talked with Jason's parents, and they think we should go with him in their place!"

He could only stare at her in shock. He knew she was good at getting her way, but he had not been expecting this at all.

"Stop looking so surprised," she said nervously. "I'm not making it up."

"I didn't think you were," he assured her. "It's just... you're _good_."

She giggled; it was the happiest he'd seen her in a long time. She didn't even seem to mind the firestorm she was going to stir up when she made the announcement about this, and her enthusiasm was infectious. If it would make her happy - and give him a chance to get away from the city for a while - then he would happily go along with it.

"Have you broken the news to Jason yet?"

She nodded. "He was there. He didn't like it, but he couldn't argue with his Queen _and_ his parents."

"So then I guess my only other question is, how is this going to work? I thought they were supposed to leave this afternoon."

Kimberly was still smiling as she answered him. It would seem that she thrived on creating chaos in her kingdom. "We'll just have to work quickly," she said. "The captain was willing to give us some more time, but we only have a day or so to prepare."

Every day with her was turning out to be an adventure, but he supposed at least this was better than more law lessons. "All right then. Tell me what I need to do."

"Help me figure out a way to tell everyone without getting killed."

He should have known she would ask for something nearly impossible. Tommy sighed. "Let's get this over with, then."

 

 

"I will be giving an announcement in half an hour's time."

Billy watched warily as the Queen headed down the hall to repeat her message at the next room over. It was shocking enough that she had come to deliver the message in person rather than relegating the duty to a servant, but he was a friend and adviser to Kimberly, and could have perhaps expected a more personal approach. But she was delivering her message in person to every member of her court, or at least those that had joined her on her honeymoon.

He could not precisely pinpoint the reason why, but he felt distinctly nervous about this meeting. He was displeased enough at having been forced to leave the royal archives, exposing valuable tomes to all kinds of unforeseen damage, but now he had the feeling that the situation was about to get worse.

He glanced to his right, where Kat was standing with one of the large law books clutched against her chest. She met his gaze and her eyes were as filled with worry as he imagined his own must be. They were in agreement: whatever was about to happen, it could not be good.

Fortunately, although he and Katherine did not rank highly enough to attend the meeting as counselors, they were the only senior archivists that had accompanied Kimberly and Tommy on this journey, and so they would attend openly rather than being forced to observe from some obscure, out of the way corner.

"What do you think the Queen is planning?" Kat asked.

Billy just shook his head. One could never tell with Kimberly. In the past, she had held formal announcements to inform the kingdom at large that she was hunting down an evil sorceress with her best knights, and to announce that she was taking a vacation. With that kind of record, Billy did not even want to speculate.

He and Katherine carefully placed the law books they had been holding, Tommy's curriculum, back into their protective cases within the room at the inn that was serving as a temporary archive, and hastened to the inn's great room, where Kimberly would be giving her announcement formally. It was already crowded by the time the two archivists arrived. From long habit, the first person Billy looked for was Trini, but she was far away on her own journey. He scanned the crowd for friendly faces, and caught sight of Sir Rocky DeSantos and his two squires toward the back of the room. They waved him over; Katherine hurried after.

Aisha pounced the moment they had squeezed into the space beside the trio. "So, what do you think our Queen has up her sleeve this time?" she asked.

"You just want them to tell you you're right," Rocky chided.

Aisha turned momentarily to stick her tongue out at him. "So what if I do?"

"I'm afraid we have no more idea than you do," Billy told them, earning a pout from Aisha.

"Told you," Rocky said triumphantly. "You'll just have to wait and see like everyone else."

They did not have long to wait. Kimberly and Tommy made their grand entrance a few minutes later, with an odd group in tow. Billy had the sudden feeling that he knew exactly what the Queen was going to say, based solely on her chosen companions: the Lord and Lady Scott, Jason, and Dulcea. In short, the group that Jason intended to take across the sea in search of a mythical sword.

Billy had argued against that in the first place, although his attempts had met with little success against Jason's stubbornness, and now he fervently hoped that he was wrong about Kimberly's intentions. Unfortunately, the Queen was predictably impulsive and reckless, and the present situation was no exception. Billy barely heard her as she confirmed his worst fears.

"Tomorrow afternoon," she began, "Sir Jason Lee Scott will depart to attempt a journey not made in living memory. He will cross the sea. And I intend to go with him."

By now the court was somewhat accustomed to Kimberly's dramatics, a fact evidenced when the assembly remained silent rather than descending into chaos. For his part, Billy felt for a moment as if his heart had stopped. _No_, he thought, for all the good it did him, _this is a terrible idea_.

Oblivious to Billy's misgivings, Kimberly went on to outline her new plan in greater detail. She explained, briefly, that Tommy would be accompanying her and that Lord Scott had again agreed to act as regent in her absence, and laid out a tentative schedule for the journey, projecting a return date of no later than one year from the present.

That was when the protests began. Billy was glad to hear others speak out against the madness. It was one thing, he thought, to allow an untried Princess to ride off to take down a confirmed threat to her kingdom. It was another thing altogether to let her go off chasing unsubstantiated dreams. Especially when, to allay the fears of her court, she added, "I will not be going alone. I will be taking a hand-picked group of warriors to protect me."

She had already allowed Zack and Trini to leave, so Billy deduced that she intended to take Rocky, Adam, and Aisha with her in addition to Jason and Tommy. Kimberly confirmed his suspicions a moment later, naming her protectors for everyone to hear. That should have made Billy feel a bit better about the whole thing, but while her chosen companions were all skilled warriors, they also had a tendency to encourage Kimberly in her antics, rather than reining her in.

"Your highness," he began with utmost caution, "Perhaps it would be wiser if you did not merely take warriors with you, but..."

To his horror, Kimberly was ready for his hesitant protest. "I agree. That's why I'm planning to take the greatest strategist and smartest man I know along with me."

He stared at her, utterly witless and hoping against hope that she was not referring to him. Unfortunately: "Yes, I mean you."

He had absolutely no desire to go with her, but he could not tell her that. She was the Queen. And she had all but ordered him to accompany her.

Thankfully, Kimberly had moved on to other topics, giving Billy time to collect himself. He did not realize he was quietly vocalizing his horrified thoughts until Aisha leaned close to assure him, "It'll be okay, Billy."

"It most certainly will not," he protested.

"Oh, don't be such a pessimist."

"It's easier just to pretend Aisha's always right," Rocky informed him in a loud whisper that had Aisha whirling to glare at him. He shrugged innocently, and when Aisha turned back to Billy she was rolling her eyes.

"I think I see an opening," Adam piped up, pointing. "Let's get out of here while we can."

Billy had been waiting for a chance to talk to Kimberly, hoping he could find a way to dissuade her from this course of action, but it seemed that such was not meant to be. The Queen could not detach herself from the clusters of concerned courtiers, so he glumly resigned himself to following Rocky and the others when they made their way out of the crowded great room. He followed close behind the knight in the hopes that Rocky's presence would deter anyone wanting to ask him about the Queen's plans, while Katherine and Aisha trailed behind, with Adam bringing up the rear.

As they emerged from the crowd and into the blessedly open air of the hall outside, Billy heard Aisha ask, "What's wrong?"

It took him a moment to realize she was talking to Kat. He had not thought much of it, his mind being fully occupied by other things at the time, but ever since Kimberly announced that she would be taking Billy with her, Katherine had seemed unusually subdued.

"Is something the matter?" he asked.

Hesitantly, she admitted, "I'd like to go with you."

"But Katherine," he protested, horrified by her words, "it will be dangerous! You'd be much safer if you returned to the archives. Who will tend to the books in my absence, if not you?"

To his continued horror and frustration, Aisha immediately stepped in to support Kat. "The Queen is going to need a handmaiden for this trip," she said. Her tone was casual, but it made Billy highly suspicious. "Kat seems like she'd be as good a choice as any."

"I thought that, in Trini's absence, you were serving as Kimberly's handmaiden," Billy pointed out, satisfied that this would put an end to Aisha's mischief.

"I was," Aisha said. "But she's asking Rocky to come along to help protect her, and when Rocky goes into battle, I have to serve as his squire. I swore an oath to help and serve him, and I can't go back on that even for a Queen. I'll help her out when and if I can, but she's going to need someone else. And I have a feeling you could use an assistant on the road, too. Why not solve both problems with one person?"

That woman could be damnably persuasive when she wanted to be. Billy was definitely beginning to see why things always seemed to go her way.

"That still leaves the issue of the archives," Billy pointed out. "They must be tended..."

"Don't you have anyone else that can do it?" Adam asked. "You've got to have an apprentice or something. What if something happened to you?"

"That is why my master trained two apprentices," Billy said. "In case something unforeseen should occur, there would theoretically be at least one of us left."

Aisha smiled sweetly. "And you're trying to tell me you didn't follow his good example?"

Billy resisted the urge to scowl. Of course he had followed his late master's example, and had begun to train a pair of apprentices, he just hated being on the losing end of a debate, and Aisha's words touched a chord of shame deep inside him. The archives had been raided and desecrated, secretly perhaps, but it had happened on his watch. He'd done his best, but he had failed. As loath as he was to admit it, perhaps it was for the best to leave the archives in the hands of another for a time. "I have emulated my master to the best of my abilities," he said stiffly. "If her highness wishes to allow Kat to accompany us on our journey, then I will see to it that one of my apprentices, or hers, will take care of the archives in our absence."

"Great!" Aisha cheered, and as she went on to assure Kat that she would speak to Kimberly on her behalf, Billy recalled Rocky's advice from earlier. Maybe he was onto something with that. If not, this promised to be a long journey, indeed.

 

 

The next day, Jason watched in amusement as the porters hauled Kimberly and Tommy's gear onto the boat. Piles of trunks belonging to Aisha, Rocky, and Adam as well as Billy and Katherine still waited on the dock. The owner of the ship stood on the dock nearby with the captain beside him, both fretting over the sudden addition of royalty to the passenger list.

At first he had been concerned at seeing his plans turned completely upside down at the last minute, no matter that Zordon had convinced him that taking Kimberly was the right thing to do. But now that he was actually aboard the vessel that would take him across the sea and was only waiting for his friends to join him... he felt at peace.

The weather was fair and the ship, which usually served as a fishing vessel, was in good shape. If only Trini and Zack could have been with him, he might have thought everything was perfect.

Trini and Zack might not be there, but he still had a pretty good group of companions, he thought. The journey was sure to be interesting, no matter what they found. What lay ahead of them might be a legendary sword, or a Queen's hidden destiny, or only a dream... but whatever it was, he was looking forward to finding it.


	26. Across the Sea

Tommy paced the deck of _The Selkie's Treasure_. The ship rocked gently under a brilliant sunset sky that faded to deep blue ahead of them. It was beautiful, but if he had to admit it, he was too apprehensive to really enjoy it.

He knew he could be playing the good husband and keeping an eye on Kimberly, but today he was feeling restless and would rather wander around the ship and stare off into the distance than supervise her as she shadowed the sailors. The men knew better than to try anything fishy, and Kimberly might actually learn something about sailing from them. But in the meantime, Tommy had little to do but think. And wander.

He strode swiftly past where Billy clung to the railing. Kat and Aisha were clustered around him, oblivious as Tommy passed by. Not for the first time since they set sail, he was glad neither he nor Kimberly got seasick the way Billy did. The poor man hadn't been able to keep any food down since he set foot on the ship.

Tommy, on the other hand, found that he actually _liked_ sailing. From his vantage point on land, the sea had seemed enormous and dangerous. It was so vast, at least, that he could not see land on the other side. For all he knew, it simply went on forever, no matter what Dulcea and Zordon (and all of their maps) said. Nobody had gone across the sea in living memory. He'd had to trust that there really was land on the other side.

But now that they were on their way, it felt freeing, almost exhilarating. Standing at the edge of the ship with only sea and sky all around, he could close his eyes and imagine he was flying again. Flying, as he had when Erë had allowed him to ride upon her back, though this was nowhere near as cold or terrifying as riding on the great ice dragon's back had been. Instead, it was gentle and soothing, a welcome respite before what was sure to be a hard journey ahead.

At least for him it was.

He wished that his companions could enjoy the trip as much as he was. He had seen very little of any of them, aside from Kimberly and Billy, since they lost sight of land. Considering how small the vessel was, that surprised him. And considering what was potentially ahead of them on their quest, he was surprised to see how quickly they had split off into their own little groups. Rocky and Adam; Aisha, Kat, and Billy; himself and Kimberly; and Jason, alone as often as he could manage it.

That last part worried him even more than their collective failure to unite for their common goal.

It was true that he had come along for Kimberly's sake, but he wanted to help Jason too if he could. After all, he owed a great deal of his present happiness - and probably his very life - to Jason's willingness to trust and forgive him when no one else would. The least he could do was make sure Jason knew he wasn't in this mess alone, but that would require him to actually _find_ Jason.

It took him a while and a lot of wandering, but he finally found Jason. In plain sight, as it turned out. Apparently Kimberly wasn't the only one that enjoyed spending time around the sailors. "Planning to retire from knighthood and sail the high seas?" he joked, ambling over to where Jason had apparently just finished a shift working the sails.

Jason smiled, but it looked forced. "Just killing time."

Tommy couldn't argue with that. Being aboard the ship was nice in some ways, but it could also be extremely boring. Especially for someone like Jason, who preferred to act, rather than bide his time.

"It's easier than thinking, you know?" Jason added quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, no point in just standing around doing nothing." Tommy followed obediently as Jason paced his way toward the rear of the ship. "It's weird not having Zack and Trini around," he admitted after a while. "They've been my friends forever... I was seven when Trini came to work for Kimberly. And Zack's family fostered him over when he and I were both eight. I guess I'd started to think we'd always be together."

Tommy was kind enough not to point out that Jason himself was the reason Zack and Trini weren't with them right now. Instead, he said, "I'm sure they're fine. Trini's more than competent on her own. With Zack with her, I'm pretty sure she's invincible."

That earned a chuckle from Jason. "Yeah, you're right. I'm probably worrying about them for nothing."

Jason stopped walking to lean against the railing and look out over the sea. Tommy joined him a moment later. "That's not all, is it?"

"No, it's not. Sometimes I'm not sure how far we, _I_, can trust Dulcea." Seeing Tommy's obvious confusion, he went on, "I just wonder why she wants me to have that Sword so badly."

"You mean besides because it might be your birthright?"

"Yeah. It seems like she's got to have some other reason, something she wants to achieve by doing this. I mean, this is a lot of trouble to go to for one sword."

Tommy wasn't sure he entirely agreed with Jason's suspicions. The Sword of Power was supposed to be exactly what its title claimed. It made sense that people would want it, and that people like Zordon and Dulcea would want it to be in good hands. "So you're thinking there's something she's not telling us?"

Jason nodded. "I think she knows a lot more than she's telling us. Zordon, too."

Tommy was starting to see why Jason would rather work with the sailors than spend his time thinking. He knew that Kimberly trusted Zordon implicitly, and trusted Dulcea in much the same way, mostly because Zordon seemed to trust her, but also because she'd helped Tommy on his quest to free himself from Rita's control. And Tommy trusted her, too, but he suddenly wasn't sure _why_. Sure, Zordon and Kimberly trusted her, but she seldom explained herself and when she did she was often cryptic. She hardly ever actually told them anything, now that he thought about it. But she'd been so helpful, he couldn't imagine her doing something harmful.

"I get the feeling I'm going to come out of this with that Sword in my hand, or I'm not going to come out of it at all."

"Whatever happens, I'm with you," Tommy promised. "I'm sure the others are, too, or they wouldn't be here. We've got your back, and we're not gonna let you go down without a fight."

"You may not have a choice. None of us might."

"Jase, what's gotten into you lately? I know I haven't known you that long, but you don't really seem like yourself right now."

"I don't know. But when I touch that scabbard... Tommy, I get the weirdest feeling that everything we're doing now, every choice we think we're making... it's already decided. Like the outcome of what we're doing here is already set in stone. I don't like that."

Tommy frowned. Jason was telling him exactly the opposite of what Aisha always insisted to be true. He didn't like hearing his friend sound so morbid. "Maybe you should talk to Aisha about this. She's very... opinionated when it comes to fate," he said, offering a hopeful smile. "But she seems to have a good idea of what she's talking about. Or try talking to Zordon and Dulcea. If they know you're concerned, maybe they'll be more open about what's going on."

Jason was silent after that; Tommy let him have the time to think. It was confusing enough just being dragged along with Kimberly. He couldn't imagine how he might feel if he were in Jason's position, so he was perfectly content to let the matter drop... for now.

It wasn't much later that Kimberly wandered over to stand beside him. "We have to go belowdecks soon," she murmured, resting against the railing just beyond Tommy's reach. "Dulcea said to meet at sunset and, well, it's sunset now."

"Yeah, I know," he said, watching as she leaned against the railing. It was amazing how even her practical traveling clothes looked so damn _good _on her.

Catching his stare, she smiled. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

After his conversation with Jason, Tommy was somewhat reluctant to go to this meeting, but he let her take him by the hand and lead him below anyway. Jason trailed along behind them, seeming every bit as troubled as Tommy. Kimberly turned out to have been right: they were not exactly _late_, but they were the last to arrive. It was a tight fit, trying to squeeze everyone into the cabin that had seemed cramped when he was only sharing it with Kimberly, but somehow they managed it.

Dulcea gave a nod when she saw the three of them enter and spread the precious maps, meticulously copied from the originals in the royal archives, across the table that filled most of the space in the cabin that was not occupied by the bed. The large pieces of parchment threatened to slide onto the floor every time the ship moved, but Dulcea did not seem bothered. Using tools borrowed from the ship's captain, she calculated their position on one map and marked it with a small round stone.

"We are here," she announced, "about halfway through the crossing as of this morning. Before we arrive at our destination, it is important that you know what lies ahead."

All eyes were on Dulcea now. Tommy felt Kimberly squeeze his hand.

"I do not know for sure what will await us on the other side," Dulcea admitted. Zordon was silent, apparently having nothing to add just yet. The sorcerer was often quiet these days, in order to conserve the energy that his crystal prison was constantly draining from him. Tommy hoped that their journey would lead them not just to answers for Kimberly and Jason, but to a solution to Zordon's slow demise.

"I have not been to the lands across the sea in several hundred years," Dulcea went on, "but the last time I was there, it was a place that had been abandoned by mankind. A 'no man's land', if you will. We, Zordon and I, believe it is likely that this will still be the case now."

That sounded like a good thing to Tommy. So far as he was concerned, the less they had to deal with other people, the better.

"This no man's land is extensive, but the lands beyond the sea are enormous," Dulcea said. She had been telling them that since before they departed on this journey, and the truth of her words was plain to see - the vast territory ahead of them was clearly marked on several of their maps. Tommy could read maps well enough, but it was still hard to believe there could be that much land ahead of them. Their homeland seemed positively, almost ridiculously, tiny in comparison.

"We'll be going beyond the no man's land, or at least I will," Jason added then. "The legends of the Sword of Power point even further east than this."

"We're going with you," Tommy blurted out before anyone else could interject. Kimberly gave him a look that said they were definitely going to discuss this later.

"As you will," Dulcea said in a calming tone. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Beyond this uninhabited area, we will find Phaedos, the Kingdom of Heaven."

Her expression seemed so nostalgic when she spoke the name of Phaedos that Tommy had to wonder if that might be her homeland. He decided not to ask about it just yet. There would be plenty of time for that later.

For the first time since they set sail, Billy was actually excited about something. "The Kingdom of Heaven?" he asked eagerly. "The oldest myths reference Phaedos often, but I had thought it was simply another legend!"

"Phaedos was famous in the ancient world," Dulcea said. "And if any of it remains, you shall see the Kingdom with your own eyes, for that is where the Sword of Power was created and lost, and where our search truly begins. But it is also where we will likely face the most danger."

"Danger?" Kimberly's grip on his hand tightened as she spoke, and Tommy squeezed back reassuringly.

"Objects of power attract those who would make that power their own," Dulcea explained. "Much as Rita attempted to steal your crown for the control over your magic it would grant her, others have sought the Sword of Power from the time it was lost. If the legends are remembered in this part of the world, there may well be those who still seek the Sword's power."

The expression on Jason's face told Tommy without words that nothing was going to get between him and that sword, not even another Rita Repulsa. Tommy hoped that ambition wasn't going to get Jason in trouble, but he had a feeling it might. If someone like Rita had come poking around their little corner of the world, what else might be lurking out there in that vast emptiness, waiting for them? As much as he might hope that Rita was the worst threat they would ever face, he knew it was better to be prepared for anything.

"If we're looking for this sword, do we have any idea where it might be?" Tommy found himself asking. "You keep saying it was lost a long time ago. How are we supposed to have any chance of finding it again now?"

Dulcea gave a slight, indulgent smile, as if he had just asked a question she had been hoping to answer. "I was there when the Sword was lost. I was the sole survivor of that battle, and I left the Sword of Power where it fell, believing that none could ever wield it again."

Now he understood. "And since no one but the true heir can touch it, it should still be where you left it."

"Exactly."

That should make things somewhat easier, at least for Jason. Tommy glanced at Kimberly and wished that she had any idea what she was looking for on this journey. They had a lot of ground to cover between home and the last known location of Jason's Sword of Power, but at least they had a direction to travel and a strategy for getting there in one piece, no matter how tentative that direction and strategy were. Kimberly's answer, on the other hand, could be anywhere and their only clue was one cryptic dream.

"If the last heir died hundreds of years ago," Aisha mused, "why can Jason touch the Sword? And does that mean there might be others who can claim it now, too?"

Tommy had been hoping to keep this meeting brief, so they did not have to be crammed into the tiny cabin any longer than absolutely necessary, but he had to admit he'd been wondering the same thing. And he was willing to bet Jason was, too.

"I do not have an answer for your questions," Dulcea admitted. "It is strange, to say the least, to find another person even potentially capable of wielding the Sword. Either the bloodline somehow was not lost as was once believed, or the sword's magic works in ways even I cannot understand. Unless Zordon has some other idea..." But Zordon was as silent as he had been all day.

It wasn't the most satisfying answer, but Tommy knew it was the best one they were likely to get. He couldn't hold it against Dulcea that she didn't have all the answers. Magic was tricky enough as it was, without having to sift through centuries of memory and lore. If anyone should know that, it was him.

"Since we at least know roughly where the sword is," he began, determined to get the meeting back on track, "where do you think we should put ashore?"

Dulcea spent the next hour or so answering questions and covering their best options for travel. Eventually they were able to narrow the list down to a pair of best-case-scenarios, plus a handful of back-up plans for going ashore and beginning the journey over land. And then, as the cabin had long since become quite cramped and uncomfortable, they called it a day.

Tommy left the meeting with mixed feelings. Kimberly seemed at least outwardly confident, but she was quieter than normal. It was starting to sink in... they really knew nothing about what they were getting into. Up until now this had all seemed like a wonderful idea, but now he was beginning to worry. If they couldn't handle this, if they were in over their heads, then they could all end up dead before the end of this.

But they had each other, and they had the help of Kimberly's magic and Erë's protection, and they had Dulcea and, hopefully, Zordon. It would have to be enough.

 

 

Kimberly stared out across the moonlit sea with trepidation in her heart. Stars twinkled merrily overhead, but Kimberly was gloomy anyway. It felt like they had been sailing for ages now, and though she did not hate it, she was looking forward to getting back on dry land. More than that, she was looking forward to continuing with her quest.

Not for the first time, she felt doubts come creeping in. Maybe she'd been wrong about all this. Maybe...

Tommy came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "Stop worrying," he said.

"Easy for you to say," she muttered unhappily.

He chuckled. "You heard what Dulcea said. We've got a ways to go yet before we reach land. And yeah, we'll have a lot of ground to cover, but that doesn't mean you were wrong."

"But I might have been," she muttered darkly, even though she couldn't quite believe it herself.

"You weren't.

She craned her neck to look at him. "If you insist."

"I do." He took the opportunity to kiss her gently before adding, "You were right, you'll see."

She decided then that the best part of doubting herself was hearing Tommy tell her how much he believed in her. "Come on," she suggested. "Let's go get some sleep."

Tommy followed her back to their cabin like the dutiful husband he was, but her mind was far from sleep. And so, it seemed, was his. As soon as they were safely alone in their cabin, his lips were on hers, and it was a long time after that before either of them was content to lie down and rest.

It seemed to Kimberly that she had only just touched her head to her pillow and closed her eyes when she awoke with pain like a knife in her skull. It was all she could do to moan and grope for Tommy in the dark.

"Kim? Something wrong?" he mumbled when she accidentally hit him in the face with a hand that would not obey her. She whimpered in response, doing her best to suppress a sob, and suddenly he was wide awake. "Kim! What happened?"

She didn't know; not that she could tell him that when no words could get past the pain in her head. Even the sound of his voice made it worse. She hoped he would not be stupid enough to light the lamps.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly, realizing she could not answer him.

She shook her head. Pain throbbed through her at the motion. Finally, one word squirmed free. "Dulcea."

"I'll get her. Just hang on!" He took off so quickly that he apparently did not realize he'd forgotten to put any clothes on, and returned with Dulcea so quickly that Kimberly knew the sorceress must already have been on her way when Tommy went to find her. While Dulcea came closer to the bed to tend to Kimberly, he sheepishly got dressed behind her.

"Ah, I had feared this might happen," Dulcea admitted, smoothing a cool hand across Kimberly's brow.

"You knew this would happen?" Tommy asked.

Kimberly squeezed her eyes shut and wished they would not talk so loudly.

"The magic that Kimberly holds inside of her protects the entire realm. Because her power can only extend so far, there is an invisible barrier that surrounds her lands and keeps the people and land within its boundaries safe. We must have passed through that barrier in the night," Dulcea explained.

"What does that mean? Is she going to get better?" Tommy's voice was thick with fear.

"I do not know."

The cot dipped as someone, Tommy, she realized a moment later when he took her hand and pressed it between his own, sat down beside her. "What if she doesn't get better? What do we do then?"

There was a long silence. Finally: "Then we will have to turn around."

Kimberly squeezed Tommy's hand. Hard. He got the message. "But..."

"If it is passing through the barrier that has affected her this way, then returning through it may be the only way to restore her."

"She doesn't want to do that," Tommy said for her when she gave his hand another vicious squeeze. "She wants to keep going."

"She is strong," Dulcea commented. "And resilient. I will go make her a draught for the pain and then she must get some rest. Perhaps all will be well in the morning."

Tommy waited with Kimberly for the eternity it took Dulcea to make and return with the medicine, and helped her sit up enough to drink it. The potion was terribly bitter, and Kimberly's stomach turned the moment she finished drinking it.

"Kim, you okay?" Tommy asked, seeing her queasy expression.

She shook her head, which only made it worse. "Gonna be sick," she managed to mutter. The effort of speaking made her head spin. Or so she thought. When they emerged onto the ship's deck a few seconds later, she realized she had only felt so dizzy and off balance because Tommy had picked her up, blankets and all, and hurriedly brought her outside. She shifted to wrap her arms around his neck and rest her head against his shoulder.

"Hey now, I brought you outside so you wouldn't have to be sick in our tiny little cabin," he chided, speaking gently so as not to cause her any more pain. "So don't throw up all over my back, okay? Just tell me if you need me to put you down."

Kimberly managed a weak laugh at that, and for once her head did not feel like it was about to split open. Whatever it was Dulcea had given her for the pain, it seemed to be working. Between the bracing salt-sea air and the medicine, Kimberly's vertigo and nausea soon passed, and then even the pain in her head began to slowly fade away. "You can put me down now," she murmured several minutes later, but by then she was already falling asleep.

When Kimberly awoke, it was midafternoon and she was alone in the cabin she shared with Tommy. She felt as if someone had hit her over the head with an anvil, but it was a dull ache, not the sharp, terrifying pain of the previous night. Groggily, she sat up in bed and tried to recall what had happened. Most of the night's events were fuzzy in her mind, but one thing she remembered vividly: Dulcea had said they would have to turn around if Kimberly did not get better.

_Well_, she thought, _I feel _a little _better now_. Getting out of bed was not as much of a struggle as she thought it would be, though the movement of the ship made her feel off-balance. Something else felt off, too, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what. She ignored the weird feeling for the moment and focused on getting dressed instead.

It was bright and sunny outside, but the cabin's one tiny window did not let much of that light in. Kimberly hunted around for a candle so that she could at least take a look at herself in the mirror before facing the outside world after her ordeal. If she looked half as awful as she felt, there was no way she was going outside without taking the time for makeup and tending to her hair.

She finally found the lantern, after cursing Tommy thoroughly for never remembering to leave it in the same place, and tried to light it as she usually did, using a tiny spark of magic. Nothing happened. Kimberly stared at her hand, then at the darkened lantern, and felt panic shiver through her. She fought for calm, but could not slow the horrified racing of her heart.

"Come on, Kim," she murmured to herself. "You're just a little out of it right now, but you can do this." She didn't say the part that was really scaring her: _Your magic hasn't left you._

Instead, she focused on drawing in the energy of the world around her and making it her own, as Dulcea had taught her. Nothing happened. It had become second nature over the past weeks, so why was it so hard to do it now?

She knew what Dulcea would say. _Don't panic._ The magic still had to be there, somewhere, but if she was panicked or anything but calm and focused she wouldn't be able to find it, much less use it. It was hard to set her frustration aside, but she forced herself to give up on the lantern for now. She'd had a rough night and it was ridiculous to expect herself to be able to handle magic right now, so she settled for fixing up her hair as best as she could in the gloom and heading outside to see what was going on today.

Outside, the sun shone brightly. Even as she squinted she could see that they were no longer on the open sea. Cliffs loomed ominously nearby, even though she could tell they were far enough out not to be at risk from the rocks.

While the seacoast back home was covered with sandy beaches and dotted with towns and small fishing communities, civilization really did seem to have abandoned this land, and for no good reason. She could see that they were following the shore, probably searching for a good place to land, but there was absolutely no sign of human habitation despite the immediately obvious abundance of the land. The land atop the cliffs was thick with vegetation, but seemed to be populated by nothing but trees and the occasional raptor.

Kimberly frowned. Dulcea had said this would be uninhabited, that much she remembered, but she hadn't expected the sorceress to be so very right. It was hard, to be so close to the end of this leg of the journey, but unable to take that next step. The cliffs were so close... but they were also completely inhospitable. Even she could see that attempting to move forward from here would be pointless.

"You're awake!" Aisha announced suddenly, snapping her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

"Yes, I'm awake," she said cautiously.

"You were asleep for two days," Aisha went on, coming closer to stand beside her. She looked like she did not quite believe what she was seeing. "Dulcea and Zordon said you weren't in any danger, but I was starting to worry. What happened? They won't tell me anything."

Kimberly tried her best to smile reassuringly in the face of Aisha's pout. "I don't really know, myself," she admitted. "All I know is my head hurt so badly I thought I would die."

"But you're feeling better now?" When she nodded, Aisha breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. The last thing we need is someone else getting sick like Billy."

"How has he been doing?" Kimberly asked.

Aisha grinned. "Much better now that he knows we're almost back on dry land."

Kimberly fell silent at that; she wasn't sure what to say. It was starting to seem like they would never really get started on this quest. She actually found herself wishing Rita Repulsa was back, because at least that had been straightforward. When they had gone to fight Rita, hey had known what they needed to do, if not exactly how they were going to do it.

"You okay?" Aisha asked. "You kinda spaced out on me just now."

"Yeah, sorry... I'm just worried, I guess." At Aisha's concerned look, she added, "When do you think we'll be able to go ashore?"

"Dulcea says it might be a while yet. It's starting to feel a little bit like we're just sitting here and not accomplishing anything, isn't it?"

Kimberly nodded.

"We'll find a place to start from soon," Aisha said. "I can feel it."

They found what they were looking for that afternoon: a spot that was sheltered enough to put ashore safely. When she finally stood upon that foreign land, setting foot outside her homeland for the first time in her life, Kimberly felt uneasy. For the first time, she truly realized just how little they knew about the land they would be traveling through.

There was no way around it: most of her people were content to stay within a few miles of the places where they were born and raised. Few ever ventured beyond the kingdom's borders. And on top of that the southern kingdom of Taye had been closed for years, though there were still the western kingdoms and trade routes. But no matter what, no one ever went across the sea. Consequently, there were no recent maps of the terrain, and even the old ones provided little in the way of information. They did not even know the name of this country, or who claimed ownership of it. The only name they knew was legendary Phaedos, the Kingdom of Heaven.

Kimberly had not asked what lengths Jason's parents had gone to in order to secure a ship for this voyage. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

What she did know was that, regardless of the dangers ahead, she owed a tremendous debt to Lord and Lady Scott for allowing her to go on this journey in their place. She wanted to succeed in her quest for their sakes, not just her own. And so she did her best to push the feelings of foreboding aside and focus on helping her friends unload their supplies.

Traveling with so much stuff was going to be difficult, especially because they could not bring horses with them. She was not looking forward to hauling around a heavy pack for days, but it would be better than going hungry. And since they had no idea what they might be in for, going hungry was a very real possibility. It might even be the least of their worries.

"Well," Aisha said, grinning. "We're here. What next, fearless leader?"

"I'm not sure," Kimberly admitted. "But somehow we've got to find that sword Jason's looking for and figure out what my ancestor was trying to tell me."

"Maybe we should try to take it one step at a time," Katherine suggested. She still seemed a bit shy despite Aisha's repeated attempts to help her feel more at ease. "We have a lot of work ahead of us just to get camp set up and put everything in order today."

Kimberly glanced over toward the ship, and the small rowboat that was making its way between ship and shore to transfer more gear, and knew Kat was right. She would just have to be patient and take things one step and one day at a time. Maybe she would even find the answers she sought while helping Jason with his quest.

At least, she thought forlornly, Zordon and Dulcea could help with Jason's search. No one had a clue what she was looking for, but Jason's Sword of Power was something out of legends so old that they predated the monarchy and the foundation of the kingdom itself. The tales were old enough that Billy had only been able to turn up references to them in the oldest portions of the royal archives, but Dulcea and Zordon were familiar with them.

If the stories were more than just stories - and the fact that the Sword's scabbard burned anyone who touched it, except Jason, suggested that they were - then he had a destiny Kimberly would never have guessed. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. He was just _Jason _to her, not some hero out of legend. If anyone should have turned out to be the legendary hero, she thought, it should have been Tommy.

"Kimberly?" Aisha asked. She realized with a shock that she had not been listening to her companions at all. Again.

"I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed. "What is it?"

Grinning, Aisha nodded to where Katherine was already helping Jason, Tommy, and the others unload the latest - and, thankfully, last - batch of gear from the rowboat. Kimberly fully intended to go lend a hand, but every thought flitted right out of her head the moment she laid eyes on Tommy.

Her husband was a beautiful man; she was a lucky woman, indeed. At some point he had removed his shirt, and now Kimberly was more than happy just to watch him work. All too quickly, the boat was unloaded and it was too late to avoid being caught staring.

Suddenly, she realized just how much she was going to miss the private cabin she and Tommy had shared on the ship.

While Jason and Rocky returned the rowboat to the ship, as they had drawn the short straws that meant they would have to deliver the boat and swim back to shore, Tommy sauntered over to where she was standing. _He's enjoying this! _she thought with mild irritation. She might have been more annoyed if he hadn't looked quite so fine doing it.

"See something you like?" he asked, clearly teasing now.

She flushed for a moment, then rolled her eyes and stalked past him to where the other members of their company were pretending to be busy with the supplies (and definitely not spying in the slightest).

They were lucky enough to find a small freshwater spring nearby, so they were able to set up camp near the beach. Once they had a fire going and a few of the tents set up, it began to look like any other camp site. Rocky and Jason returned a short while later, breathless and sopping wet from their swim, and the little scene seemed complete... at least until she thought of the friends who had been unable to join them. She hoped her friends were faring well on their journey, wherever they were.

After the camp was more or less set up, the men headed off to see if they could catch any fish for dinner. Billy, shuddering with horror at the thought of potentially having to touch a fish, which he hated almost as much as he hated sailing, chose to stay behind and help the women finish getting everything organized.

The men did not return emptyhanded, and they all ate well that night. But none of them was very inclined to be the first to sleep, so they were all up late into the night, clustered around their fire. When they did finally head to their tent, Kimberly found she couldn't sleep. She laid awake in the darkness, listening to the sound of the waves and of Tommy's breathing, wondering what fate had in store for her.


	27. The Kingdom of Heaven

It was still dark when Aisha came to collect Billy, on their first morning in a strange land. He rose blearily from his bedroll, having expected this early awakening in light of certain confessions he had made in his seasick delirium on the journey across the sea, and stumbled wearily out of his tent. At some point during the night, a thick fog had rolled in, masking the beach in white mist. An owl made a soft sound somewhere in the darkness. For reasons he could not explain, Billy found this quite alarming, though Aisha seemed neither worried nor fatigued in the least. In fact, she looked quite pleased with herself. Belatedly, he realized why.

Before waking him, she had managed to procure two long, straight sticks from the forest that surrounded their campsite and the little beach, each about the size of a quarterstaff. She took one for herself and proferred the other for his use. Billy accepted it with a strong, but as yet unvoiced, sense of concern. After all, he had been the one that confided in her that he wished he knew how to defend himself in battle so that he might feel at least a little less useless in the future.

The staff was heavier than it looked, and felt as if being struck with it might result in some real damage to one's person. He was suddenly fully certain that he was not ready for this.

"Aisha, I appreciate your eagerness to begin my lessons, but perhaps we should start with something less... dangerous," he protested. He did not add that he also wished she would have given him a bit more time to recover from his seasickness. By this point he knew that arguing with Aisha was pointless. Once she made up her mind about something, nothing short of a miracle could change it, but at least he could make her aware of his trepidations.

She would hear none of his concerns, as usual. "I'm not in any danger," she promised. "Just don't let go if you're swinging it in my direction and everything will be just fine."

He cast one last dubious glance at the makeshift staff in his hands and sighed. "If you insist, let's begin."

As Aisha started walking him through the basics of using a staff in battle, he began to wish that he had never confessed his feelings of inadequacy to her. He was no warrior, and sometimes thought that martial prowess was altogether beyond him, but Aisha's patience - and her desire to help a friend in need - knew no bounds. Once she found out he was concerned about his inability to stand his ground in a fight, she made up her mind to help him rectify the situation. If he truly wanted to learn how to defend himself, then she was determined to teach him even if she had to do it herself before anyone else was up for the morning. He might never have the strength, coordination, or skill of Jason or the other knights, but at least he could be less of a burden should danger rear its head. Or at least, hopefully he could, with Aisha's help.

The quarterstaff was heavy; the more Aisha made him practice moving with it, even the simplest of motions, the heavier it seemed to become. In short order, he was breathing hard and his arms were shaking with the effort. And although he was sweating profusely and feeling sore all over by the time they were finished with the day's lesson, he was proud to note that he had not dropped the staff once, and had also managed not to harm himself or Aisha. Maybe his situation was not beyond hope after all.

By that time the rest of camp was starting to come awake. Dulcea returned first, from wherever she had wandered off to in the night. In the fog it was difficult to tell, but Billy got the distinct and disconcerting impression that she had returned to the outskirts of the camp in the shape of an owl and only returned to human form as she set foot on the ground. Rocky and Adam and Katherine emerged from their respective tents a short while later, followed by Jason, leaving only the royal couple still abed.

It wasn't long before Aisha and Kat roped Rocky and Adam into helping prepare breakfast. For his part, Billy was glad she hadn't decided to make him help with breakfast, too. He was not a particularly skilled cook to begin with. As tired as he was now, anything he helped create would likely not turn out to be edible.

"You okay?" Jason asked, coming to stand next to Billy.

"I am having little difficulty in adapting to my new surroundings thus far," Billy replied. "Being on dry ground is preferable to being back on a boat."

Jason looked a little dubious at first, but by the end he was amused enough to change the subject. "What do you think we're getting for breakfast?" he asked, nodding his head slightly to where their four friends were clustered around the fire.

"I hope it's not more fish," Billy muttered.

He'd barely finished speaking when Tommy's frantic cry made everyone forget any thought of breakfast. "Kim! Kimberly!"

Billy looked to Jason and Dulcea for guidance, but the two were already on their way to the royal tent. Just before Jason ripped open the tent's door, Tommy emerged calling for Dulcea. "It's Kim... She won't wake up."

Tommy accompanied Dulcea into the tiny tent that he shared with Kimberly, while the rest of the group was left to cluster outside and worry. It seemed to Billy as if Tommy and Dulcea spent a short eternity examining the indisposed Queen before finally reemerging from the tent to tell everyone what was going on.

"Come," Dulcea said. "Let us gather by the fire, and I will tell you what I know."

When they had done as she asked, which Billy had to admit was a bit more comfortable than standing around the royal tent, Dulcea explained the situation. "It is her magic that causes your Queen not to wake," she said calmly, as if it were an everyday occurrence and they were all foolish to worry so much. Billy wondered why she hadn't just told them this when she first came out of the tent, if it was so simple.

"Can you help her?" Tommy asked.

"Perhaps," was Dulcea's cryptic, and distinctly dissatisfying, reply. "For now, it is best to give her space and see if the situation will resolve itself without interference. As far as I can tell, she is in no danger now. But that might change if I attempt to assist her."

Billy could tell Tommy and Jason were less than impressed by this answer. It seemed Aisha could tell, too. Leaning over conspiratorially, she whispered, "What did they expect?"

Billy nodded. "If Dulcea was going to assist, she would have done so already." That she had not stepped in to help Kimberly told him that this was something Kimberly needed to get through on her own. And if it was related to her magic... then he was sure it must be important. As much as he hated the idea, he knew that he and the others would just have to be patient.

Unable to remain still any longer, Aisha got up and salvaged what she could of their forgotten breakfast. "You know," she said pointedly, "it'll make the time go faster if we keep busy."

Under her instruction, Billy, Kat, and the others helped get what they could of the camp packed up for the day. In the meantime, after some instruction from Dulcea, Tommy went back inside the tent to try again to wake Kimberly. But by the time they were done, it was obvious that Tommy had made no further progress.

Billy exchanged a worried glance with Katherine; no doubt she was feeling every bit as guilty for their shared ignorance of all things magical as he was. If only they had not failed in their duties as archive keepers, they might have had some inkling of what was going on... but alas, they could not change the past. They could only try to get by.

One by one, everyone began to gravitate toward the royal tent again, hoping for some sign from within that everything would be all right. It seemed that Adam and Dulcea were the only ones capable of being truly calm. Jason stared at the tent with a surprising intensity, as if by sheer force of will he could make Kimberly wake up and get things moving. Aisha and Katherine spoke in hushed tones, and Rocky was downright fidgety.

For his part, Billy tried frantically to think of anything actually useful that he could do. But for all his efforts, he found himself listening in on Aisha and Kat's conversation instead.

"It's not just that," Aisha was saying. "She's not just my Queen, she's my _friend_. I swore an oath to protect her... and now she's in trouble and I can't do anything to help her."

While Katherine tried to reassure her, Billy suddenly had an idea. "None of us are helpless," he mused aloud, "perhaps if we put our minds together we can think of something."

Aisha turned to look at him, obviously aware now that he had been eavesdropping. "Hey, that's not a bad idea," she said. She quickly gathered Rocky and Adam, drawing them into a loose circle along with Billy and Katherine.

"Should we perhaps include Jason and Dulcea?" Billy asked.

Aisha shook her head. "You want to try telling him he should do something other than brood?"

Billy did not, so he let the matter drop.

After a brief, awkward silence, Rocky said, "So... what do we know about magic?"

Billy tried, with limited success, not to feel guilty all over again. Instead, he tried to focus on the best place to start the analysis of their current situation and its possible solutions.

Aisha looked thoughtful. "Well, we know from experience Rita used it to control Tommy and to create monsters."

"And dragons are able to use it," Adam added.

None of this particularly helped them now, Billy thought, since Rita was dead and there were no dragons to be found. Privately, he also thought that Dulcea was the only one that might have a solution, and she wasn't saying much. The sorceress merely watched, looking as if she was deep in thought... or waiting for some sort of sign.

"I suggest that we rule out the possibility that someone is using magic to control Kimberly at the current moment," Billy said. "Dulcea stated that it was her own magic causing her to remain in this state."

"Good point," Adam said.

"This journey... it all started because of a dream," Katherine murmured. "What if she's having another one? A dream that's meant to tell her something, I mean. Maybe she can't wake up until it's done..."

Billy did not much like the idea that there might truly be nothing they could do to help their friend, and apparently neither did the others. To Billy's mild alarm, Aisha began to develop a particularly devious expression while Katherine, Rocky, and Adam continued hashing out exactly what they collectively knew - or could guess - about magic.

"Should we just get Tommy to kiss her?" she asked. "If the stories are right, that should do the trick."

"Did you hear that, Tommy?" Rocky asked loudly, unable to hide his smirk.

"Not helping!" came the irritated reply.

"Do you have a better idea, then?" Adam asked in his most amicable tone.

"... No."

Billy wondered if the solution to the problem could truly be so simple, and so obvious. But Aisha had a point. In all the old folk tales about magic, the hero always woke the bespelled heroine with a kiss. Perhaps there was more to that consistency than mere romance.

Jason muttered something to Dulcea; lost in his own thoughts as he was, Billy didn't catch what he'd said, but he heard Dulcea's response loud and clear: "There is no cause for alarm yet."

"You're sure you can't do anything to help?" Jason asked.

"If it appears that she is in danger, I will intervene," Dulcea decided. "But until that time..."

They would all just have to wait.

 

 

Kimberly felt, rather than saw, the myriad eyes that watched her from the gloom. The throne room was not lit, as it usually was; the only light seemed to emanate directly from her body as she walked slowly down the aisle toward her throne.

One foot after the other, each step firm and proud and confident. The enormous room echoed with the silence, save for her steps and the swish of her fine silk gown as she walked. The throne itself loomed before her in the darkness, every bit as imposing as it had been on her wedding day, but that did not keep her from ascending the dais. This was her birthright; she was meant to do this.

She turned to face the formless mass of people that filled the room. The almost-sinister glint of light on hidden eyes did not trouble her. Instead she reached for the pedestal that had risen up before her, reaching to take hold of the crown that would make her Queen. But instead of lifting a crown, as she had during her wedding and coronation ceremony, she hefted a sword with one hand and a shield with the other. As she held them aloft for all to see, the sword began to burn bright red, and the shield grew white hot.

Kimberly gripped each weapon tighter, unburned despite the heat, and waited.

Gradually, light seemed to spread throughout the room. The dark shapes watching began to resolve themselves into the faces and forms of people she recognized. Her mother, her grandmother. Her great-grandmother, faces she recognized only from the portraits that hung in the royal gallery, all the way back to Bryndis Hart herself. While the other figures began to cheer and applaud, Bryndis merely lowered her eyes and gave a nod of approval.

Kimberly had one moment of consternation at the First Queen's reaction - _a sword and shield? I'm no warrior..._ \- before everything went black and she was abruptly falling down and down and down into the inky darkness... and then she was blinking awake in a dizzy confusion. Tommy's hands were on her shoulders, as if he had just frantically shaken her awake.

"Kim," he breathed as he saw her eyes open. His relief was obvious even through her fuzzy, still sleepy vision.

"Tommy?" she asked wearily. "What's wrong?"

"You wouldn't wake up," he murmured, letting her fall gently back against their makeshift bed. She realized now that it wasn't dark at all, as it had been in her dream, but that the sun was shining brightly. And judging by its angle, it was late morning. They had intended to leave at dawn, and must have been forced to delay because of her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm already getting sick of this. Why didn't weird things like this happen when I was back at home? Why now?"

"Kimberly," he interrupted soothingly, oblivious to the real cause of her concern.

She hadn't yet been able to tell him how her magic had seemed to fail her after the incident on the ship. He and the others... they were relying on her. She just couldn't bring herself to let them down, so she'd kept her mouth shut and hoped that the situation would resolves itself. But now... she knew her magic wasn't gone, but she still had no idea why she couldn't use it.

Instead of telling him any of this, she said, "I dreamed of Bryndis again."

"The First Queen? What did she say?"

Kimberly sat up and sighed. She really hated to disappoint him. "She didn't say anything. That's the problem."

Tommy looked confused, so she told him briefly what had transpired in her dream. "A red sword?" he asked when she had finished, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "Who do we know that sounds like that?"

"You think it's referring to Jason's quest?"

He shrugged. "Or just Jason in general."

She had assumed that, if anything, the red sword in her dream was a reference to the Sword of Power; it had not occurred to her until now that the sword and shield might not represent actual weapons, but people. She had to admit, Tommy's idea made a certain amount of sense... but she still had no idea what it might mean.

"But if it's referring to Jason, what next? I already know he's looking for the Sword of Power. I don't get it."

"Maybe there's more to all of this than what we're seeing right now," Tommy suggested.

"Well, a lot of help that is. Thanks, Bryndis. There's more to it than I thought before, that's _so_ helpful."

Tommy chuckled a little at her frustration. "I'm sure we'll figure it out. We can talk to Billy and the others about it later. Maybe they'll have some ideas."

She pouted. "I just wish for once I could understand what's going on, instead of always having to rely on Zordon and Dulcea to explain things," she admitted. "I hate never knowing what's going to happen next, or what my dreams mean when I do have them. And I'm getting really sick of this whole... sleeping beauty routine!"

"Look at it this way," Tommy said, his tone way too optimistic for Kimberly's taste. "These dreams may be inconvenient, but they do give you an edge over the rest of us. It's almost like Bryndis is trying to point us in the right direction by showing you these things."

"By showing me a sword," Kimberly responded dryly.

Tommy smiled. "By showing you a sword that is definitely some sort of sign, and might be referring to one of our friends. You've got to admit it's given us something to think about that we might not have come up with otherwise."

"Okay, but if you're right and Jason's the sword, then who's the shield? And what in the world could it mean?"

Another shrug. "No idea. It's your dream, not mine. All I can do is guess."

She frowned and reached behind her to grope for her pillow, which she promptly swung at his head. He managed to block the blow, laughed, and slipped past her guard to pull her close for a kiss. "I'm glad you're okay," he told her. "You really had me worried there for a while."

"I'm sorry. I really wish I could control when and how these things happen, but I can't."

"I know," he assured her. "But you have no idea how scary it was to see you like that and know I couldn't do anything to help you."

Had he already forgotten the time he left her behind to go find a dragon in order to purge himself of Rita's evil magic once and for all? Waiting for him then had been one of the hardest things she had ever done, when she had not known if he would ever come back. Of _course_ she knew what it was like, and how much it sucked, to have to wait and hope that the one she loved would come back to her. But now, because of that experience, she knew she would do anything for Tommy. And she knew he would do the same for her.

"I'm sorry for worrying you," she said again, and wished she could spend all day in his arms instead of trudging across some strange land in search of a sword.

Tommy seemed to accept her apologies. She only hoped he realized that she really couldn't control what was happening to her.

"Come on, you must be starving," he said.

She managed a weak smile and let him change the subject. "I am kind of hungry," she admitted. "How late are we now, anyway?"

"Well, it's not even midday yet, at least." Seeing her grimace, he added, "No sense being upset about it. There's nothing we can do about it now. May as well get moving, though. Dulcea says we have a lot of ground to cover."

Kimberly nodded numbly, already dreading the thought of the long hike ahead, but she got out of bed and got dressed as best as she could with Tommy crammed in the tiny tent with her. She supposed she ought to thank him for not having let everyone else squeeze into the tent with him while she was sleeping, but words failed her. Even now that she was halfway presentable, she still hesitated to go outside and face the others.

"They were worried about you, too," Tommy told her. "Are you ready for this?"

Even as he spoke, she had already started toward the flap-door that was the only thing keeping their companions out. She wondered if he could see how tired and upset she still felt, or if she had somehow succeeded in hiding it beneath makeup and fine clothes, but when she glanced back at him, she could tell he knew. And that he was worried about her.

"I'm the Queen now," she said tartly, unable to explain to him why her dream was still bothering her. "I always have to be ready."

_And I always have to know the answers, even when I don't._

And with that she forced her way out of the tent and went to reassure her friends.

 

 

Jason had to admit, when he'd realized Kimberly really was under some sort of magic spell, he'd worried about her. He'd been under the impression that once she got married, her magic would sort itself out and she would have little trouble in controlling and using it. Apparently he'd been wrong. And now he had to wonder if bringing Kimberly along on this quest had been the right decision. It had not escaped his notice that all these strange mishaps had only begun to happen once they left home.

Maybe if they'd left her behind, she wouldn't be in this position right now. Or, he thought, she might be experiencing exactly the same problems, but without her closest friends to help see her through it.

But when he saw her come out of the royal tent, all fire and frustration at having caused a delay and worried everyone, he knew everything was going to be fine.

"Okay," she said in her best Queen tone. "Show's over. Everything's fine now." More quietly, she added, "Tommy mentioned breakfast..." She paused to scowl at the breakfast pot, untouched from earlier. "You didn't have to wait for me, sheesh."

"You're our friend," Aisha said. "We were more worried about you than we were about eating. Well," she paused to cast an incriminating glance at Rocky, "most of us were."

"Hey, she can take care of herself," Rocky pointed out. "My stomach can't."

That earned a laugh from everyone, and neatly distracted from Kimberly's earlier predicament. It amused Jason to see that Aisha was every bit as adept at saving Kimberly from awkward situations as Trini had been. Kimberly really seemed to have a knack for picking formidable friends.

Once Kimberly had reassured them all again that she was all right, Aisha herded them all over to where breakfast was waiting beside the fire. There was less tension in the air now, but everyone still seemed a little subdued while they ate; Jason noticed that Dulcea seemed especially aloof, and kept glancing at Kimberly, as if she was curious about something.

He did not have too much time to wonder about that, though. As soon as breakfast was done, it was time to hit the road. They had lost enough time already, there was no sense in lingering here. Even if he felt a little rushed by the time they were finally finished eating, Jason still had to admit he was glad they were finally on their way.

For now he was content to let Dulcea lead the way through the thick foliage that bordered their campsite, and dropped back a bit to talk to Tommy. "I'm going to guess Aisha was right and the kiss worked," he said conversationally.

Tommy tried not to roll his eyes. "Yeah, it worked like a charm."

"Did she have any idea why that happened?" Jason asked. "The not waking up thing, I mean."

Tommy shook his head. "She just said she was dreaming."

That caught Jason's attention. It was dreams that had led Kimberly this far. He didn't really want to pry, but he was curious about where those dreams might lead her next. "What about?"

"She wouldn't tell me much about it," Tommy admitted. "Except that she apparently saw the First Queen again, and that she had a sword and shield."

"And not a bow?" Jason said, amused.

"Yeah, she seemed kind of annoyed about that."

"Did she think any of it meant anything?"

"We're not sure," Tommy admitted. "She thought it might have something to do with your quest, because of the sword, but that's about it."

A sword and shield... Jason decided to ask Dulcea about that later. If anyone would know how to interpret the signs in Kimberly's dream, it was Dulcea.

By then they had come to a particularly dense part of the forest, so they let the conversation go and focused instead on making their way through the mass of plants. It wasn't long before Jason resorted to using his belt knife to hack through the vegetation, and he soon found himself wondering how Dulcea had managed to slip through it all so effortlessly.

It wasn't until he finally reached the small clearing on the other side that he realized that Dulcea really could change her form, just as Tommy had said she could. An owl that had been perched on a nearby tree branch leaped into the air, spread its wings... and became Dulcea as it glided toward the ground.

"I've scouted ahead a bit," she said, as if nothing at all odd had just happened, "and I found a place for you to camp for the night, if you can make good time for the rest of the day."

Jason nodded and followed her lead, while Tommy and the others fell into step behind him. He was glad to hear there was a good campsite somewhere up ahead. Their packs were heavy, and only seemed to get heavier as the day went on. As he made his way after Dulcea, Jason found himself wishing they had been able to bring pack horses, but no vessel large enough to transport the beasts had been willing to make the trip across the sea, and there was no way they could have made it through this forest with horses.

As they trudged along and afternoon shaded into dusk, Jason began to get a sense of just how big of an undertaking this quest was. It had not really occurred to him before that the journey was going to be long and tedious. But if today was any indication, it might be a long trek, but at least it would be fairly quiet. After everything Dulcea had told him about the Sword of Power, he'd half expected to have to fight every step of the way just to find the thing. And yet the land around them was empty, at least of human life, and for the most part peaceful.

It was actually almost creepy. Back at home, there were small villages, or at least shelters for travelers, every few miles along most of the major roads. But here there were no roads and no villages, not even so much as a shelter or signpost.

"Why doesn't anybody live here?" he thought to ask when he found himself walking beside Dulcea.

"It has always been so," she said by way of explanation. He should have known better than to expect any sort of clear answer, but before he could ask her to be more specific, she said, "We are not far from the campsite I located earlier," and strode ahead to guide the way.

Setting up camp was already becoming something of a routine, with each member of the team more or less knowing his or her duties. Nothing out of the ordinary happened as the sun set, but everyone was a little bit on edge anyway, only to breathe a private sigh of relief when morning came and nothing untoward had befallen any of them. Jason was especially relieved to see that Kimberly had made it through the night without any further magical mishaps.

They got a much earlier start than they had on the previous day, after Kimberly had assured them all that she really was fine and no, she was not hiding anything from them.

They continued to head east under Dulcea's direction for several more days without incident. At first the wilderness seemed calm and peaceful, but as they made their way gradually out of the forest and across more hilly, barren terrain, it became more and more disquieting. They encountered enough wildlife to keep themselves fed without relying too much on what they had brought with them, but little else. As Dulcea had predicted, they still saw no sign of human habitation.

It was positively spooky, but it changed soon enough.

Seven days into their journey they emerged from the last vestiges of the forest onto a wide, flat plain. They paused at the very edge of it, even though no one spoke. Jason didn't know about any of the others, but he was a bit surprised to suddenly reach the very end of the trees; the scrubland had seemed as if it could go on forever without end. After traveling for so long with at least a few trees and large bushes for cover, crossing into the grass seemed to make them positively vulnerable.

He found himself almost unconsciously waiting for Dulcea to give them some sort of signal to turn back toward the trees, but she led them steadfastly toward the sea of grass. Since that was obviously the way they should go, Jason put aside his apprehensions and followed where Dulcea led.

The grass was so tall it reached almost to Jason's shoulders; much to Kimberly's displeasure, voiced often during the days they spent crossing through it, she could barely see over the tips of the long leaves. There weren't even game-trails cutting through the thick vegetation, so Jason and Tommy took turns in the lead, hacking their way through as best as they could.

In spite of the grass, the land was smooth and flat, and they saw the walled town long before they reached it. Jason was actually a bit startled to see it pop up in the distance, as if it had suddenly just sprung up in front of them. It had been so long since they had since any sign of other people that he had gotten used to the idea of being utterly alone in the world. Now that they were about to encounter the first town of their journey, he couldn't help but wonder what to expect.

As he led the way up onto the old road that led to the town, the first they had encountered so far on their journey, he wondered: would these people be friendly or hostile?

It did not take long for him to get his answer.

By the time they reached the town, it was obvious that something was amiss. For one thing, there were no outlying farms amidst the sea of grass, and there was no sign of any fires burning within the town itself. The town was surrounded by a large and well constructed stone wall, but its massive gate was wide open and unguarded.

The town was abandoned. There was no sign of life within its walls, but nor was there much sign of decay. It could not have been long ago that this place was inhabited.

As they stood inside the gate, staring at the inexplicably empty town around them, Kimberly wondered aloud what had become of the people who had lived there, but no one had an answer for her.

"Plague?" Adam guessed.

"It is possible," Zordon said. His sudden input surprised Jason; lately the sorcerer spent much of his time in silent meditation, leaving Jason and the others to Dulcea's guidance.

"But if it was plague that caused this disruption of habitation, where are the bodies?" Billy asked. Jason hadn't been able to put his finger on what, exactly, was so weird and off-putting about this place until that very moment. Billy had hit the nail on the head. "If people had died here, even years ago, there would be... bones or other remains. There would be some kind of indication, at least."

But there was no sign of plague or battle. The city just seemed to be empty, as if the inhabitants had simply wandered off one day, never to return.

"Let's split up and see if we can find anything useful, or any clues as to what happened to the people who lived here," Jason decided. The others nodded their agreement. Since there were nine of them, it was easy to split off into groups of three: Rocky, Adam, and Aisha formed the first group; Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy were the second; and Jason, Dulcea, and Katherine made up the last group. Before they went their separate ways, Jason added, "Meet back here at the gate before sunset."

While Rocky's group followed the road that curved along the wall to the west, Tommy led his group toward the center of town. That left the path heading east for Jason, Katherine, and Dulcea.

There was not much in the town to interest Jason; it was mostly just filled with old, decaying buildings and roads paved with crumbling stones. He supposed if he had any interest in architecture the place would have been fascinating, but he did not care much for buildings. Especially not ancient and decrepit ones.

He and Dulcea ducked into a couple of the sturdier looking structures to see if there might be anything inside, but the residents of the town had not left much behind. They did stumble upon the remains of a smithy, but nothing remained but the enormous hearths.

Eventually they made their way far enough east to reach the town's eastern gate. Compared to the western gate they had entered by, it was enormous. And even though it had obviously suffered a lot of wear and neglect over the years, much of the intricate decorating was still visible. Each of the enormous stones that made up the arching gateway was covered in carvings that looked like they must be from some sort of legendary story. Flakes of colored paint still clung stubbornly to the rock in a handful of places.

While the great doors of the western gate had still been mostly intact, the eastern doors had rotted and fallen from their hinges. Jason had thought it must have been weeks or months since the town was abandoned, now he realized it had to have been years.

"Wow," Katherine murmured. It was the first time she'd spoken at all since they split up. Glancing back at her, Jason noticed that she had a small book in one hand and a bit of charcoal in the other, and had been sketching notes while he and Dulcea were poking around in the empty buildings.

While she was busy drawing the gate, Jason headed through it.

"Where are you going?" Katherine asked, looking up from her sketch as Dulcea followed Jason. Her voice betrayed her nervousness.

"I want to see what it looks like on the other side," Jason replied. He could tell that piqued her curiosity, because she overcame her fear a few moments later, picking her way through the rubble of the ruined doors to stand next to him and Dulcea outside.

The road leading out of the city to the east was overgrown to the point where it was difficult to tell where the road actually was. In the end Jason chose to give up trying to stay on the road in favor of simply wading through the grass, and almost immediately regretted his decision as he tripped over something large and hard hidden in the thick grass. Recovering his balance, he shoved the grass out of the way to get a better look at what he'd stumbled upon.

It was a large stone, a couple of feet high, cut into a roughly rectangular shape and set into the ground, though it was now leaning off-kilter. One face of the stone was covered with strange carvings that looked as if they might be writing of some kind.

"Hey, Dulcea, what do these markings mean?" he asked.

"They mean that this is a place of the dead," Dulcea said quietly.

Jason could see it now despite the covering of grass: stretching out beyond the city wall for some distance to the east, facing the rising sun, was an immense and ancient graveyard. It was so old and ill-tended that the grave markers were almost invisible amid the long grass. He might not even have noticed it if he hadn't nearly run into one of the stone markers.

He wasn't one to put much stock in superstitions or ghost stories, but this was not a place he particularly wanted to be caught after dark.

"Come on," he said, "it's getting late. Let's go find the others."

Kimberly, Tommy, and Billy were waiting for them back at the entrance to the town. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha showed up a few minutes after Jason's group arrived. Jason was glad to see that everyone had made it back in one piece. Before he could ask what the other groups had found in their respective searches, Kimberly beat him to it.

"Did anyone else notice anything weird about this town?" she asked.

"Other than the fact that everyone that lived here apparently decided to move at the same time?" Rocky asked.

"Nothing grows inside the city walls," Aisha said quietly. "It's like this land is poisoned."

"And that's why we're going to keep moving tonight," Jason said. "The gates on the eastern side of town are busted, so it's not like we'd be any safer in here than out there." They had not encountered anything remotely resembling a threat yet, not even a large predator like a bear or lion, but he knew it was better to always be prepared. They had only been in this town a few hours, definitely not enough time to have thoroughly checked everything. Who knew what might be lurking in those dark and empty buildings?

He'd had enough of magic back at home, and this place fairly reeked of it. He wasn't about to take any unnecessary chances, and it seemed like everyone else agreed with him.

They left the town behind and kept walking long into the night. The moon shone bright in a cloudless sky, providing them with more than enough light to see by. Sometime well after midnight they came across a small stream, where they made camp for the night.

Over the course of the next several days, they encountered other walled towns, but avoided them all. Every one had the same abandoned look as the first.

"What could have caused this?" Jason asked Dulcea one day as they led the way through the grass.

"Caused what?"

He got the feeling she was deliberately avoiding the subject. "I meant, what could have made all those people just... leave their homes like that."

Dulcea shrugged. "In the past, these lands have been wracked with war and tragedy."

"Don't you think it was weird that there was nothing living inside that first town? Not even plants..."

Dulcea fell silent and refused to answer any more questions, much to Jason's frustration. "What aren't you telling us, Dulcea?" he demanded.

Instead of answering his question, she simply said, "We are nearing the end of the plains."

He'd been so caught up in his own thoughts that he'd barely noticed how late it was getting, much less the sudden change in the terrain up ahead. A short distance ahead, the ground simply sheared away into an enormous cliff. If he'd kept walking and not paying attention, he would probably have just gone tumbling over the edge. _Some great scout I am_, he thought with chagrin.

"We should find a place to make camp soon," he muttered.

"You should see this first," Dulcea said gently.

Jason did as she said, following her to the very edge of the cliff. He was taken aback by what he saw. While the land atop the cliff was rich and green, below it was barren. Much like the walled towns they had left behind, nothing grew there. From this vantage point, it looked as if all they would find at the bottom of the cliff was dirt and sand... and, if his eyes did not deceive him in the growing gloom, yet more ruined towns.

Dulcea did not need to say anything more. Jason knew instinctively what he was looking at.

The sky behind them grew blood-red, and before them it became a bruised black, but still Jason waited. He could not seem to tear his eyes away from the darkened land that lay ahead; he could almost smell the stench of decay, even at this distance. He'd been looking forward to reaching Phaedos and seeing the mystical land for himself, but he hadn't expected it to be anything like this.

As the others began to catch up, he glanced to his right, where Dulcea stood, an unreadable expression on her face.

"So this is Phaedos," he commented.

"The Kingdom of Heaven," she confirmed.


	28. Falling Apart

When clouds hid the stars and turned the night black as pitch, and while the other members of the party slept, Dulcea sat awake beside the fire. She had not bothered to build it back up after the humans took their leave for the night, and so it had gradually reduced itself to little more than embers. The dim orange glow was enough for her to see by and besides, she was not afraid of anything that lurked in the darkness here.

They had not entered Phaedos yet, after all.

"Do you think I am doing the right thing?" she asked quietly, mindful that her human companions might not be as sound asleep as she thought they were. She did not really expect an answer.

"You are doing all in your power to help those who would aid the cause of light," Zordon said. "You can do no more than that, Dulcea."

"You know as well as I the place to which I am leading them," she murmured. "And you know as well as I: they are not ready for this."

"They must be," Zordon stated.

"Yes," she agreed, bowing her head. She had not known these mortals for long, but they were already dear to her. Jason, who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, and who seemed to grow more serious by the day; fearless Tommy and indomitable Kimberly; fiery Aisha, thoughtful Adam, witty Rocky; Billy, the consummate scholar; even quiet Katherine had made an impression, in her own way.

"We no longer have a choice, Dulcea," Zordon went on. "If Jason could have somehow avoided finding that scabbard… if things could have been different, perhaps we might have had more time to prepare. But he found it, and you were there to tell him what it was. And now, if we know, there is every chance that other powers are also aware that an Heir has been found after all these years."

"Did you ever think it would turn out to be him?"

"He has the right spirit for it," Zordon admitted, "but no. I did not think that Jason, however noble he tried to be, and _is_, could truly be the Heir. I thought the Sword of Power was a weapon we had lost long ago, which we would never see an opportunity to recover. I was certain that, aside from a few small havens, this world was doomed to be overrun by evil in the end."

Smiling in spite of herself as she thought back on the past few weeks, Dulcea said, "I didn't see it coming, either. If I had been asked to guess… I would have chosen Tommy as the most likely candidate for such a role."

"Tommy?"

"Yes," she murmured. "He, too, has a worthy spirit."

She could almost hear a smile in Zordon's voice as he said, "True, but I suspect that Tommy's fate lay elsewhere even before Rita got her hands on him."

The ominous silence that followed made Dulcea frown. "Zordon?"

The sorcerer laughed quietly. "It's nothing. Only… I did not see it at first, but our Kimberly is more clever than she knows."

 

 

Although she had slept only fitfully the night before, Aisha was up before the dawn. She could hardly believe they had finally reached Phaedos. More or less.

In the dark, before she woke Billy for his daily practice, she made her way over as close to the great drop-off as she dared, and peered out over the land that lay ahead. This early, she could not make out any details, and yet the very idea of Phaedos filled her with a sense of excitement… and dread. As she crept back toward the cluster of small tents where her friends were sleeping, she caught sight of Dulcea sitting by the fire. The sorceress's dark eyes watched her by the dim light of the nearly-dead fire.

"Phaedos… it's not what the stories say, is it?" Aisha murmured.

Dulcea's expression grew sad. "Not anymore, no."

"That's why we're here, isn't it?" Aisha pressed. "That's why you wanted Jason to go after that sword, even knowing how dangerous it might be. You're hoping we can help save your homeland, aren't you?"

Dulcea did not avert her gaze. "That is a story for later."

Aisha felt her temper flare, and did not rein it in. "You'd better tell us what we're getting into sooner rather than later," she said sharply. "We should all be on the same page with this. You shouldn't be keeping secrets." Even as she said it, she knew she would not get any more information out of Dulcea today, but she hoped that maybe now that she knew someone was onto her, Dulcea would be more willing to share her secrets in the future. Aisha knew how to be patient. If Dulcea wasn't ready to share now, she wouldn't force the issue. But as far as she was concerned, Dulcea ought to come clean with what she knew before it was too late.

With that in mind, she left Dulcea to her thoughts and went to get Billy.

Over the next few days, the group settled into a new routine. Rather than continue east, they skirted north along the top of the great cliff for days, searching for a safe place to descend. While they had brought some rope with them, they had not brought nearly enough to make their way down from such a height, and the only advice Dulcea could offer was to keep heading north.

A few days after the change in direction, Aisha found herself walking next to Kimberly. The Queen kept gazing longingly out over the darkened land to the east, until Aisha could stand it no longer. "What are you looking at?" she asked.

"Nothing," Kimberly admitted, looking a little self-conscious. "Just wishing we could fly."

It really was too bad, Aisha thought, that they couldn't fly. It would have made the journey that much easier and faster, but they were as bound to the earth as they had ever been, and no amount of wishing could grant them wings with which to fly.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Kimberly asked a little while later, her voice pitched low so no one else would hear her.

"Of course," Aisha replied, offering a friendly and reassuring smile. She had noticed over the past several days that Kimberly seemed preoccupied with something, but had chosen to wait in the hopes that Kimberly would bring it up herself when she was ready.

"How much do you know about magic, 'Sha?"

Aisha shrugged. "Some. Probably not a lot compared to what Zordon and Dulcea know, but my grandmother told me some things before I left home."

"Mine seems to have… stopped working," Kimberly confessed, staring at the ground as she walked. "I don't have any idea why, and… it's probably stupid of me, but I'm afraid to talk to Tommy or Zordon or Dulcea about it."

"You don't want to let them down," Aisha surmised.

Kimberly nodded. "Do you think they've noticed?"

Aisha thought for a moment. "Tommy? Probably not. Honestly, I think he's still shocked every day that he didn't just dream up being married to you and being on an adventure with you and Jason," she said, hiding a small smile. "But Zordon and Dulcea? That's hard to say. But even if they have noticed, they haven't said anything… so I'd guess they're either not worried, or they're going to respect your privacy."

They lapsed into silence after that, content to simply keep pace with each other for the rest of the day, and after that it wasn't long before they found what they had been looking for. Aisha almost didn't see it at first, and Kimberly almost certainly missed it, but there it was: a treacherously narrow path that crept its way down the side of the cliff. The very idea of descending a cliff this size made Aisha feel apprehensive, but she knew they were going to have to go down sooner or later, and this was the first place they had found where that might actually be possible.

They made camp early that day, gathering near the edge of the cliff after everything was settled.

"Can we get down from here?" Jason asked.

"I do not know for certain," Dulcea answered. "The path has changed since last I came this way. The cliff is unstable, and parts of it have fallen away." She had explained as much a few days back, when they had come to the place where there had once been a path down, only to find that a large portion of the cliff had simply sheared off and fallen away. That had been disappointing, but there was no sign that the same thing had happened, or was likely to happen, here.

Jason and Tommy made use of the remaining light by rigging up some ropes and testing the first portion of the path. Aisha stood with Billy and Kimberly and watched, at turns entranced and horrified. It seemed that at any moment their friends would make a wrong step and plummet from the cliff face, never to be seen again. But nothing went wrong, and by the time darkness had fallen everyone was safely atop the cliff again.

Aisha did not want to think about descending the cliff in the morning. Unfortunately, despite her wishes, morning came all too soon. While Rocky and Adam worked on getting their ropes ready for the descent, Aisha made her way to the very edge of the cliff and cautiously peered downward. It was no less terrifying than she had feared it would be, but there were a lot of ledges on the way down, making it seem more doable than she had thought at first. The hard part, she realized now, was not going to be getting down. It was going to be coming back up.

"Aisha," Rocky called, drawing her out of her worried thoughts. She hurried over to where he was waiting. "Ready?" he asked. "We thought we'd lower you and Kimberly down to the ledge first…"

"What, since we're the smallest and the lightest?" she teased, to hide her worry.

"Well, yeah."

Adam rolled his eyes. "But mostly because you two have that, you know," he lowered his voice, "magic stuff. We were thinking if anything went wrong, it could protect you."

Aisha had hoped to get through this adventure without ever needing to use Trini's ring; it had become her secret goal to return it to its rightful owner one day. But she had heard Zack's story from the day of the ill-fated melee so long ago, when Rita's monster had carried Trini over a cliff with it. She remembered how the ring's power had saved not just Trini's life, but Jason's, too. If it might save her life now – or Kimberly's – then she knew she had to use it, whether she liked it or not.

She was not sure what to expect when she placed the ring on her finger for the first time, but she was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer sense of _power_. When the worst of that feeling, and the brilliant light that came along with it, had faded, Aisha murmured, "Whoa."

Kimberly had come over and was looking at her with a wistful expression on her face, which soon turned to amusement. "You know, that knocked Trini out the first time she did it," she said.

With the ring's power flowing through her, Aisha felt invincible, like she could do anything. She did not let herself wonder why she might not be suffering the ring's effects the way Trini had. Instead: "Let's do this!"

As soon as harnesses had been fashioned to everyone's satisfaction, and ropes had been rigged and secured to the closest sturdy trees, Aisha and Kimberly began their descent. Once they were safely on the first ledge, which was about halfway down the cliff face, the guys pulled the harnesses back up, and started lowering the next "victims", which turned out to be Adam and Billy. Next came Katherine and Rocky, followed by Tommy, and then Jason after a delay that was long enough to leave the rest of the party peering up the cliff in concern.

When Jason finally reached them, he explained with a grin, "Dulcea was able to fuse the rest of the ropes into one. So we should be able to keep going down from here."

The ledge was quite cramped with everyone jammed onto it, so they began the second part of the descent right away, starting with Aisha. She was afraid to ask how sturdy a magically-fused rope might be, so she did not. She simply accepted that it would work, and hoped that if it didn't her ring's magic would protect her.

Getting everyone and all of their supplies down the rest of the cliff face intact was just as nerve-wracking as Aisha had thought it would be, and even more time consuming. By the time everyone had reached the bottom, the sun had sunk below the horizon, dyeing the sky in shades of red and violet and plunging Phaedos into darkness. Aisha was wondering how Dulcea intended to see her path, much less make the entire descent, when suddenly the rope dropped down the cliff. Looking up in alarm with the rest, Aisha realized the sorceress had simply changed to her owl form and was gliding down to join them at the bottom.

"No wonder she made us carry everything," Rocky quipped.

Camp was already more or less set up again by the time Dulcea joined them. Aisha was just glad to be on solid ground again, even if she did have the strange sensation of being watched, and went to sleep early. It seemed that everyone else had the same idea, because they were up and on the road shortly after dawn in the morning. She did not even have time for weapons practice with Billy.

And yet it seemed to her that the more enthusiastic everyone else was, the more withdrawn Dulcea became.

As they traveled, Aisha became increasingly aware of the darkness that had spread throughout this once legendary land. Dulcea had not said a word about it, but Aisha could tell that something wasn't right. She always felt like she was being watched, and with each hour that passed she grew jumpier and more paranoid. And the land itself seemed to be resisting them. There was little wildlife, and what animals they did see fled at the sight of them. Even the water tasted tainted.

Dulcea led the way toward the northeast, thankfully guiding them away from the looming cliff. Aisha was not sad to see it put behind them, because the farther away from it they got, the more her feelings of discomfort faded. She no longer found herself wondering what manner of beasts might live in the shadow of that cliff, or what creatures might be watching from above.

By the time the cliff had faded into the distance behind them, the terrain had shifted from a boulder-speckled plain to a veritable forest of stones and boulders. They were scattered everywhere, some of them quite large, and others arranged into fantastical sculptures.

"Is this natural?" Billy asked Dulcea one night as everyone gathered around their small fire.

The sorceress only shrugged.

After several days of walking, the relatively flat land began to give way to hills and bluffs and cautious, almost stunted evergreen trees. Or at least, Aisha assumed they must be evergreens. They certainly had the same shape as the familiar pines from back home, but their trunks were almost black and their leaves were purplish red rather than green. A while longer, and they reached a place where the trees began to grow close around them: a new forest.

For the most part, the forest was as ominously silent as the rest of Phaedos, but now and then they could hear the calls of strange and unfamiliar animals and insects. Aisha did not much like the sounds of these creatures, but at least now they would have firewood. When they came across a clear-running spring later that afternoon, they decided to make camp a little early.

And it turned out, Tommy had something else in mind. "Let's see what we can find around here," he suggested. "Maybe we can find something fresh for dinner."

Kimberly slung her quiver over her shoulder with a grin. "I'm in."

"I am not certain that this is the safest course of action," Billy protested. "After all, we do not know what may be lurking among the trees."

Tommy looked unimpressed with Billy's cautious advice. And after days of living off the dried rations they had brought with them from home, Aisha had to agree with him. Fresh food sounded divine. To that end, she pointed out, "The only way to find out what's out there is to go looking for it."

Billy clearly did not like the plan, but he was outnumbered and outvoted. They drew straws to determine who would go with the hunting party and who would remain back at camp, and in the end it was Tommy, Kimberly, Aisha, Jason, and Adam who headed into the forest to see what they could find.

Aisha took it as a good sign that Dulcea made no protest, either at the idea of hunting or the fact that she was chosen to stay behind. Besides, there were five of them. How much trouble could they get into?

She got her answer a bit over an hour later, when they came across something _large_ lurking in a particularly dense patch of undergrowth. As Jason and Tommy circled around behind whatever it was, Aisha found herself wishing she had a spear instead of just a bow. She also had a long belt-knife, but that did not make her feel much better. The knife would do as little good as her arrows if they ran into something that was big and dangerous.

Something rustled loudly in the undergrowth; Aisha inched closer to Kimberly, ready to protect the Queen with her life if necessary. Her heart raced, pounding in her ears. It wasn't until the charging beast burst out of the cover of undergrowth that she realized the beating in her ears was the sound of its hooves on the ground, not just the sound of her heart.

Tommy and Jason must've flushed the creature from the other side, to send it rushing out like this. Aisha shouted an alarm and shoved Kimberly out of the way, but the creature – a boar, from the look of it – turned at the last moment and charged at Adam instead.

"Adam!" Aisha screamed. There was no way she could reach him in time.

She only noticed the arrow protruding from the beast's flank when a second one joined it. Kimberly.

Unfortunately, the arrow only made it angrier and did not stop it. It collided powerfully with Adam, knocking him down before disappearing into the forest.

The next thing Aisha knew, Adam was bleeding in a heap on the ground, and Jason and Tommy were rushing to join them. "What happened?" Tommy asked breathlessly.

Unable to help herself, Aisha lit into him. "That boar charged us. What were you thinking?"

"Come on," Jason bit out, loudly enough to silence Aisha and ensure that Tommy never made his next retort. "We have to get Adam back to camp and treat these wounds." At least he had thought enough ahead to bring a few rudimentary medical supplies with them, which he was already using to bind Adam's injuries.

"How bad is it?" Aisha asked. She was almost afraid to find out.

"I'll be fine," Adam said through gritted teeth. "But walking isn't going to be fun for a while."

Aisha had her doubts, based mostly on how much blood there seemed to be everywhere, but she knew there was little she could to help, except to help get Adam back to camp where Billy and Dulcea could help him.

When the bandages were secure around Adam's injured thigh, Jason and Tommy helped him carefully get to his feet.

"You okay?" Kimberly murmured.

Aisha nodded and blinked back tears. "Rocky's going to kill me for letting this happen."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know. But I should have done… something." If the boar had come after her, maybe her magic ring would have made a difference. But she would never know.

"It wasn't your fault," Kimberly repeated.

Aisha held up a hand. "Listen."

Everyone stopped moving; in the silence, the sound of something rushing through the forest was obvious. An instant later, the boar burst out of the bushes to the left of the group, charging right for them. Jason and Tommy hauled Adam out of the way, missing the boar's tusks by mere inches. Unthinking, Aisha tackled Kimberly, hurling her to the ground and covering her protectively. Belatedly, she remembered to use the magic ring, slipping it onto her finger and hoping armor would be enough.

"Go!" she shouted, picking herself up off Kimberly and trying to figure out where the boar had gone. "Get him out of here. We'll be fine!"

Jason and Tommy did not look inclined to obey. "Go," Kimberly ordered. "Don't make me make that an official order. We'll be right behind you!"

Glaring at Aisha as they started after the men, she said, "We'll be fine, huh? What are we going to do if that thing comes back, sleep in a tree?"

"If we have to," Aisha responded calmly.

They were right to be ready for another attack, because it wasn't long before the boar came back again. This time they were ready, so there were no close calls. But this time Aisha held Kimberly back from following Jason and Tommy.

"We can't lead it back to camp," she pointed out.

"So what are we going to do?" Kimberly asked. "Stay here and hope it attacks us again?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

Grimacing, Kimberly looked around them. Spotting a likely tree, she skittered up to a branch about ten feet off the ground.

"Give me your arrows."

Aisha stared at her.

"Oh, because they're going to do you so much good down there."

Aisha dove out of the way an instant before the boar would have gored her, too. "Give me your arrows!" Kimberly shouted.

Aisha let loose a string of curses, trying to figure out where the boar had gone and where it would attack from next, but pulled her quiver off and tossed it up to Kimberly anyway. "You really think you can shoot that thing in this light?"

"Yes," Kimberly hissed. "Just get me a shot and I'll kill that bastard."

"Get you a shot," Aisha said, feeling faintly hysterical. She hoped that Jason and Tommy would hurry up and come back to help. "How in the world am I going to do that?" Seeing only one recourse, she put her back to the tree and shouted, "Hey, Ugly! I'm over here. What, are you _scared_ now?"

"Aisha!"

"I know what I'm doing. Be quiet."

"Aisha!"

The boar had definitely noticed her now. It stood in the distance, almost invisible in the growing gloom but for the glowing red eyes that watched her. What kind of boar had eyes that _glowed_? One foot pawed at the ground, and she swore she heard it growl at her.

"Yeah, you," she blustered on, heart racing and hair standing on end. "You think you can take me?"

She drew her belt-knife as the beast charged. But she never needed it.

Kimberly's arrow hit its mark, striking the boar right between its glowing red eyes. Pink light flared as the arrowhead punched through the boar's skull, and in the next instant the creature's hide sloughed off. Underneath the fur and skin was not flesh and meat, but only bones. And without the boar's hide and whatever magic had held them together, the bones collapsed into a pile.

Aisha recoiled in horror. Kimberly slithered down the tree to stand beside her, staring wide eyed at the remains of the boar while Jason, Tommy, and Rocky ran up to them.

"I told you we'd be fine," Aisha managed, but she did not even sound convincing to herself.

That night, Dulcea called a meeting around the campfire. "Before we proceed, there are things you must know," she explained when everyone had gathered.

Aisha, sitting with Kimberly on one side and Rocky on the other, felt an unpleasant sense of fear growing in her heart.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is no free and healthy land, as you may have guessed," Dulcea went on. They had guessed, and now they were all wary, not just of Phaedos, but of Dulcea herself. "What is not written in your legends and history books is that Phaedos fell long ago." She paused to let that sink in.

Aisha glanced to Rocky and Adam, seeing her own trepidations mirrored on their faces. And then she found herself looking to Jason, Kimberly, and Tommy, surprised that none of them had spoken out in the face of Dulcea's revelation. She had known all along, and had done nothing to warn or prepare them…

"Phaedos is under the dominion of a very evil man," Dulcea explained. "His name is Zedd, and his evil is so great – and his magic so powerful – that it pollutes everything around him, even the land itself. That is why the creatures here have grown so different from the ones that you are familiar with. But you must be aware that the plants and animals here are also much more dangerous than the ones found in your homeland."

"Yeah, we'd noticed," Jason muttered bitterly. "You could have told us this sooner."

"You must always be on guard against treachery now. Only drink water that flows clear. Don't eat anything that looks suspicious, or too different from what you would eat back home. And trust your instincts. Don't go near anything that seems wrong to you, even if there is no visible sign of danger."

"Why tell us this now?" Tommy asked after sharing a glance with Kimberly. "We kind of figured that out after what happened today."

"She's telling us now because we will be parting ways," Billy guessed.

Dulcea nodded calmly, as if she were not the least bit affected by their anger and frustration. "For a short while."

No one seemed quite sure what to make of that. They might be angry with her for not warning them about the dangers before one of their number was hurt, but she was still their guide. How were they supposed to keep going without her? Or did she expect them simply to wait for her return? But if so, why not leave them before they reached such dangerous territory, instead of after? No one was willing to ask.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Aisha asked when it became obvious that no one else was going to.

"Keep heading to the north and east," Dulcea instructed. "The land should grow hillier in that direction, and should afford you some measure of cover. If we're lucky, today was only an unlucky accident, and Zedd still does not know that we are here."

"You mean," Kim said quietly, "that he might have _sent_ that thing to hurt us?"

"If he knows we are here and what our purpose is, it is not just possible, but likely."

Aisha felt a little bit sick at hearing that. As if it wasn't dangerous and daunting enough already… They'd had enough trouble with the monsters and mayhem that Rita had cooked up, and now it sounded like they were heading straight toward something even worse.

"Let me get this straight," Tommy began. "Not only may this Zedd guy know we're here and what we're after, he might already be trying to kill us? And now you, the only one of us that has any real idea what's going on, are going to go off on your own… for what purpose, exactly?"

Dulcea ignored his angry tone. "I am going in search of a settlement that was once located to the east of where we are now," she explained. "You will recall that I possess a charm that allows me to move much faster than a mere mortal," she went on. Even Aisha remembered that story, how Dulcea's amulet had helped save Tommy's life. "I would rather that we stay together for the entirety of this journey, but I must cover a lot of ground and I must do it quickly. You will be safer if we split up."

"But what's so important –" Tommy started again.

"You will need horses if you wish to reach the end of this journey before the year is out."

She had a good point. Up until now they had been traveling on foot, and Aisha did not need a map – or any idea of how far away their destination really was – to know that they were making precious little progress each day. And now their progress was going to be hindered even further, due to Adam's injury. Still, she did not like the idea of going without Dulcea's guidance and protection, even for a little bit.

"So that's it?" Jason asked. "You're going after these horses that might or might not actually be out there somewhere, and we just keep going and hope you meet up with us again?" He frowned. "When do you think you'll return?"

Dulcea thought for a moment. "I cannot say. Seven days, perhaps. No more than twice that long."

This time, Aisha was the one with a question. She had a very bad feeling about it, too. "When are you leaving?"

"At midnight."

That answer made the skin on the back of her neck prickle. At midnight? Who ever set off for a journey in the middle of the night, unless it was on some nefarious errand?

"I cannot condone this," Billy finally spoke up. His tone was calm, but his face was flushed with anger. "We will be safer if we stick together. If a detour is necessary, then so be it."

"The sooner I leave, the sooner I shall return."

"Dulcea," Kimberly protested.

The sorceress was unmoved. "This place is dangerous," she reiterated. "Do not stray far from camp, and go nowhere alone."

"But _you're_ going off alone," Kimberly pointed out in a last ditch effort to stop her.

"I know what I am getting into," Dulcea replied serenely. "You do not. There is safety in numbers."

Kimberly clearly did not like this answer better than anybody else, but no one had any better arguments. And so that night, Dulcea took her leave.

 

 

Camp was gloomy the next morning, with Dulcea gone. The night seemed somehow darker and more dangerous, though no one saw any signs of life beyond the light of their fire.

Everyone seemed subdued and grim over the next several days. The going was even slower than usual, since they had to take Adam's injuries into account. Tommy couldn't help but feel guilty every time he so much as looked in Adam's direction, and he could guess that Jason, Kimberly, and Aisha felt much the same way. They all felt as if they had let him down, even though they had no way of knowing what they were getting into when they chose to go on that hunt.

After seven days, they began to keep watch for Dulcea's return. By now, even Tommy was starting to feel like they weren't making any progress, and that the only thing they were heading for might be their own doom. There was something ominous about the land the further they traveled into Phaedos, something nameless and haunting. He knew it must be the darkness that Dulcea had mentioned, but he had no idea how to deal with it. Even Billy was clueless on that count.

Seven days became eight and then nine, and still there was no sign of their wayward sorceress. On the tenth day after Dulcea's departure, they reached the edge of the forest. Tommy felt an inexplicable prickle of alarm early in the day, but he did not know what was causing it until they reached the end of the trees and saw the mounds. They were large and fairly evenly spaced, and covered with only a sparse growth of grass.

They did not look natural.

"I get the feeling this is not a good place," he commented quietly.

Kimberly looked at him and he knew without words that she agreed with his assessment.

Apprehensively, Billy pointed out, "But there is fresh water here."

And sure enough, when he listened, Tommy could hear the sound of water running nearby. There was a spring a short distance to the north, bubbling up from beneath a large stone and running off to the east along the mounds. He did not like the look of that, either, but he had to admit Billy was right. They had gone most of the day without seeing the slightest sign of water or a safe campsite.

In fact, the trees had grown so thick since they set out that morning that they could hardly find a path between them. This was the first spot that was open enough for a campsite that they had found all day.

Tommy still didn't like it.

But the sun was creeping lower and lower in the sky, and if they kept going they would soon find themselves blundering along in the dark. And he knew that would just result in someone else getting hurt or the entire party getting lost.

"What do you think, Jase?"

"I don't like it. But I don't think we're going to find anything better today."

"I suggest that we make our camp near here," Billy said, "but remain vigilant."

For the group's sake, Tommy tried to set aside his unease, but it was there in the back of his mind even as he helped set up the tents and get dinner ready. But when Kat pulled him aside after dinner and said she needed to discuss something with him, he began to think maybe his sense of foreboding had more to do with his companions than with their surroundings.

He followed her away from the main camp, keeping a careful eye on the forest around them. Kimberly was going to be curious about this later, and he had no more idea Katherine wanted than how he would explain it to his wife.

The sun had not quite set yet, so there was still light, but there would not be for much longer.

"Kat," he began, but she interrupted him.

"I'm not pregnant," she said quietly, looking acutely embarrassed even though none of their friends were around to see. "I thought you would want to know. There won't be any problems with, with the succession or with Kimberly. I won't make any claim on you, now or ever."

Frankly, the thought that their encounter might have left her pregnant had never even crossed Tommy's mind. He stared at her blankly, unable to think of anything to say.

They both realized too late that Kimberly had followed them, and had just overheard everything Kat said. The Queen's expression grew pained for an instant before she could hide it behind a calm façade. "Excuse me, _husband_," she said, the angry emphasis making him want to cringe, "may we have a few words?"

"Of course," he said, though what he really wanted was for none of this to be happening.

Kimberly practically hauled him a few steps away, then turned furious eyes on him. "Why is Katherine telling you she's not pregnant?" she demanded in an angry whisper that was so loud that Kat could no doubt hear every single word.

"It's… complicated," he tried to explain.

"Complicated," she repeated in disbelief, her temper already out of control. "It doesn't sound complicated. If she's telling you she's not pregnant, then you must have had some reason for thinking she might be. And I can only think of one reason for you to think that."

"It's not what you think" he interjected, feeling increasingly frantic. If she would just slow down and give him a chance to explain, then he might be able to make her see… but she was so upset now that she might not ever listen to him. "There was a spell…"

"A spell."

He wished she would stop repeating what he said like that. "Yes. Rita cast a spell on me and Kat. I thought she was you!"

Kimberly laughed bitterly. "Tommy, you're going to have to try harder than that. I can't believe that you would ever think _she_ was _me_." She gestured harshly toward Katherine. Tall, willowy, blonde-haired and blue-eyed Katherine, who was so obviously different from small, dark-haired, _fierce_ Kimberly.

"I can't give you a better excuse," he admitted, hoping the truth would save him or at least save his marriage, "because I don't have one. But Kim, if I had known it wasn't really you -"

She did not want to listen to him any longer, and took off, running back through the camp and into the forest on the other side. By now, their argument had caught the attention of everyone else in camp. Tommy ignored them, even though they had absolutely no business getting involved in this. "Kim! Wait!" he called, racing after her.

He only made it a few steps before he ran into Aisha. She was a small woman, nearly as petite as Kimberly, but he did not know anyone who could be intimidating like Aisha. And with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face, she looked very intimidating right about now. It didn't hurt that he still had vivid, and painful, memories of the way she'd brained him with a spear on the night he, as Rita's evil Green Knight, had tried to kill Jason and kidnap Kimberly.

It occurred to him in his despair that he'd probably just blown his second – and last – chance.

"Give her some space," Aisha said curtly. Her tone brooked no argument.

Tommy stared hopelessly in the direction where Kimberly had disappeared and knew Aisha was right. He'd royally screwed up by not telling Kimberly about what had happened with Katherine, and now he was going to have to pay the price… and hope he could find a way to fix this.


	29. The Last Crusade

Katherine took one look at Tommy and, seeing how heartbroken and dejected he looked, knew she couldn't let this day end this way. As stealthily as possible, she crept around the camp and followed the trail Kimberly had left on the other side. With every step she took, she remembered Dulcea's warning: _this place is dangerous. Do not stray far from camp, and go nowhere alone._

When she judged that they were far enough from the others, she called out, "Your Highness! Kimberly! Wait!"

She caught sight of the Queen up ahead, standing amid the forest shadows. She looked terrifying. Kat approached in spite of her trepidation.

"_Go away_," Kimberly said.

"Please, hear me out -"

"I said, go away!" Kimberly's voice was twisted with anguish. It broke Kat's heart just to hear it.

Kat fell silent, as her Queen had commanded, but she did not leave. She couldn't, not when Dulcea had said it was dangerous to be alone here. Even if Kimberly hated her now, she wouldn't abandon her. Who knew what might be lurking in these woods?

"I'm sorry, I can't," she said finally, just to break the horrible silence. "I -"

"I _order_ you to go away." Her voice was calm, but Kimberly looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

Kat would have liked nothing better than to obey, to go back to camp and hide her own tears in her tent. Instead, she said, "It's not safe."

She did not need words to know that Kimberly did not care whether it was safe or not. The look in those eyes said it all.

"I'm not going anywhere," Kat said, with more resolve this time. "It isn't safe to be alone, so if you won't go back to camp or get Aisha or someone else to stay with you, then it's going to have to be me."

"Why did we even bring you with us?" Kimberly snapped. "You only wanted to come so you could get close to Tommy again, didn't you?"

Katherine was momentarily speechless. That had not been what motivated her to join the group at all. In fact, she would have happily stayed home... if she hadn't felt so guilty for nearly guiding Tommy astray when she - and he - was under Rita's spell. She had wanted to make things right, if she could, not steal him from his wife! If only she could make Kimberly see that. But all that would come out of her mouth was, "No!"

Kimberly clearly did not believe her.

"No," Kat went on. "I didn't come here for that. I would never!"

She liked Tommy; he was good looking and kind and brave to a fault, everything she felt a knight should be. But she knew better than to chase after a man who had pledged himself to another woman. If he had not been so clearly in love with Kimberly, then maybe things would have been different. Maybe she would have tried to win him herself. But those were just maybes, things that would never be.

She had always thought, if she was ever to be with a man in that way, it would be a man whose heart belonged only to her. Rita might be dead and gone, but she had destroyed that dream, just like she had laid a trap to destroy Kimberly and Tommy's marriage. Rita had succeeded in destroying Kat's dream. But she hadn't permanently destroyed what Kimberly and Tommy had. Not yet.

So Kat tried a new tactic, hoping that maybe if she took all the blame, Kimberly would forgive Tommy. That maybe this way, Rita wouldn't win. That maybe her colossal mistake, her idiotic attempt at reassuring Tommy about a potential problem he hadn't even bothered to think of, might not be the cause of a disaster. "Please, don't be angry with Tommy. What happened wasn't his fault. It was mine."

Kimberly's glare was hard and angry.

Kat tried to persevere. "Because of Rita's spell, he thought I was you. If I hadn't followed him... if he had known it was me and not you, it never would have happened! You have to believe me!"

But Kimberly did not look like she believed Kat at all.

"Please..."

"And why should I believe you? Either of you!"

"Because," Kat answered, with sudden certainty, "if he had thought something might ever come of what happened between him and me, Tommy would have told you. But he didn't, because there was never anything there, except Rita's spell."

Kimberly scoffed. "So tell me, what's going to keep that from happening again, since you both seem so prone to these 'magic spells'?"

Kat's hand went to the collar round her neck, almost of its own accord. Dulcea called it a necklace, or a charm, depending on her whim, but Kat had never seen it as anything but a collar. It was enormous and gaudy, encrusted with semi-precious jewels, and she hated the weight of it around her neck. "Do you see this necklace?" she asked, earning a scowl from Kimberly. "Dulcea gave it to me when she freed me from Rita's spell and set Tommy back on his quest. Do you know what it does?"

Kimberly did not answer, merely stared at her with angry eyes.

On the brink of breaking down in despair, Katherine said, "It protects me from magic control. No one is ever going to be able to use me the way Rita did, ever again. Not as long as I wear this." Tears sprouted up in her eyes in spite of her best efforts. "And yes, I care for Tommy... but it's because he was kind to me when he could have blamed me for everything, not because I'm in love with him! He could have hated me for what happened... but he didn't. He lied to everyone to protect me, so I wouldn't have to feel more ashamed than I already did. And so yes, I came here because of him. I'd go anywhere for him, I'd do anything he asked. Because I want to help him. I want to make amends. I want to be his friend - and nothing more - if I can."

"Oh, gods," Kimberly murmured, so quietly that Katherine wasn't sure she'd heard. She realized then that Kimberly was crying. "I want to believe you. I _do_ believe you. But I... I can't stop it."

"Your Highness?"

Kimberly gasped sharply. "Stay back!"

Katherine wanted to do anything but that, realizing that Kimberly needed help, and took a step closer.

"I said stay back!" Kimberly snapped, frantic. Katherine stopped short in horror, as from out of nowhere flames rose up and engulfed Kimberly.

 

 

Adam watched, or rather listened to, the little scene between Kimberly and Tommy and suppressed a wince. As if it wasn't bad enough that he'd been hobbling around for the past few days thanks to his injury, which Dulcea's healing magic had helped but not fully healed, now the royal couple was in the midst of a spat and Aisha looked about ready to start murdering people. Specifically, Tommy. And he had a feeling he knew who was going to have to clean up the mess afterward.

"Great," he muttered, watching Kimberly stalk off into the forest. Alone. Just like Dulcea had told them not to do.

Rocky glanced over and gave him a knowing look.

While Aisha intercepted Tommy and lit into him furiously, Rocky made his way over to where Adam was sitting at the base of a tree. "Got any brilliant ideas?" Adam asked.

"Other than letting this just blow over?" Rocky shrugged. "In my experience, if a woman wants to be mad about something, she's going to be mad whether it makes sense or not."

"Yeah, but don't forget what Dulcea said before she left," Adam pointed out, taking care to sound as neutral as possible. "We're not supposed to go off on our own." He did not particularly want to take sides in the Kimberly-versus-Tommy fight. And, apparently, neither did Billy. As soon as Aisha started in on Tommy, the archivist crept over to where Adam and Rocky were talking.

"This is an ominous time for such an occurrence," he said quietly, nodding his head slightly in the direction of their companions.

Rocky and Adam chorused their agreement, and Adam had the sense that if they didn't mend things quickly between Kimberly and Tommy, the entire group would quickly fall apart. At the very least, it was going to take something major to appease Kimberly, and Aisha would defend her Queen to the death if need be. "It's going to be a long night," he noted.

"That's enough," Jason said suddenly. He did not speak loudly, but there was something in his tone that commanded attention. Everyone fell silent and looked to him; in the chaos after Kimberly's abrupt departure, they had all but forgotten he was there at all. "The last thing we need right now," he went on, fixing Aisha and Tommy with a glare, "is to be fighting among ourselves."

They had to admit he was right, but Adam could tell Aisha was still bristling. And Jason knew it, too.

"Aisha, you go with Rocky and look for Kimberly. Billy and Adam, see if you can find where Kat's gone off to."

Aisha gave him a sour look.

"And Tommy. We're going to have a few words."

Suddenly Adam wasn't sure which side Jason was on. Rocky snickered. "Well, he's in for it now."

"Who? Tommy or Jason?"

"On second thought, probably both of them," Rocky decided, then went to collect Aisha. "Come on, 'Sha, let's go find our errant Queen. We can worry about Jason and Tommy beating the stuffing out of each other when we get back."

Adam rolled his eyes and let Billy help him to his feet. "Let's get this over with," he said, glancing over to where Jason was standing next to Tommy. Neither of the two men were saying anything, so it was pretty clear that they were waiting for everyone else to clear out first. A pity, Adam thought. He was curious, but it seemed he wouldn't get a chance to satisfy that curiosity.

Instead, he did his best to follow along after Billy. They walked for quite a while through the trees, calling out occasionally in the hopes that Katherine would hear them and come find them on her own. Adam could not see any sign that she had run off into the forest after her altercation with Kimberly, but she had not returned to camp yet, so she had to still be out there somewhere. He only hoped she hadn't run into any sort of trouble.

They walked what seemed like forever, until his injured leg had begun to ache again, but saw no sign at all of Katherine.

"This is really weird," Adam said when they finally stopped in a small clearing to rest for a bit. "Where can she have gone?"

"Perhaps she has hidden somewhere and does not wish to be found at this juncture," Billy mused. "However, that would be uncharacteristic."

Adam had not known Katherine as long as Billy had, but it seemed odd that she would have run off, especially when Dulcea had been so clear about warning them not to be caught alone in this place. "Maybe she didn't come this far," he said, thinking aloud. "Maybe she circled around, or turned somewhere, or went back to camp on her own and we missed her."

Billy agreed, and with that in mind they changed direction, circling slowly back toward camp. As they went, they continued calling for Kat, even though by now both of them were fairly certain she had somehow managed to slip by them and return on her own.

A little further on, Billy slowed and then came to a stop, frowning. "This does not seem right. I can't explain it, but I suspect something is amiss here. Are we heading in the right direction?"

He was right; Adam felt uneasy, too. And a little bit lost. A mist had come up from somewhere, swirling ominously between the trees and around their feet. And it was growing quite dark under the trees, as the sun sank in the west.

"I think you're right," Adam agreed. "Something isn't right here. We should probably keep moving."

"Katherine!" Billy called again, one last time, just in case.

There was no answer.

For reasons he did not understand, a shiver went down Adam's spine. He followed closely behind Billy as they ventured a bit further.

It occurred to him that Katherine had not come this way, though he had no idea how he knew that. And, a little later, it occurred to him that something was indeed very, very wrong.

The mist had grown thicker and thicker with each step they took, and now it had enveloped them completely. He could barely see Billy only a few steps in front of him, and then he could not see Billy at all.

"Hey, Billy, slow down so I can keep up," he called. "I'm still hurt, remember?"

But there was no response.

"Billy?"

He thought he saw someone standing up ahead and hurried toward the figure, but it turned out to be only a trick of the mist. His heart raced as the figure evaporated into white mist and he thought he heard a voice whisper, "Fear not."

"Billy!"

Suddenly he felt as if something cold had tried to grasp at the back of his neck and bolted, or at least ran as best as he could on his still-healing leg. He no longer cared if he left Billy behind. He would come back for Billy later, when the mist was gone and the sense of wrongness had faded. At least, that was what he told himself.

Right up until he tripped and fell headlong into a small ravine filled with brambles and vines and other unpleasant plants. They broke his fall, but as he landed on his back he could feel thorns piercing his skin and he had the feeling that the vines were wrapping themselves around his arms and legs, holding him fast. He did not know for sure, because he could not seem to tear his gaze away from the edge of the ravine, where the mist had once again coalesced to form a human figure.

"Don't be afraid," a voice whispered in his ear, the same voice from before. "I will set you free."

Somehow, Adam knew it was lying.

 

 

Aisha was seething as Rocky all but dragged her out of camp. By the time they had made it far enough away that they could not hear what Jason and Tommy were saying behind them, he actually thought she might break free of his grip and go back. But she said nothing and eventually calmed enough that he let her go so she could walk beside him instead of being pulled along.

"Stop it, 'Sha," he said softly when he saw how irritated she looked. "You know Jason'll take care of Tommy. Kim's like a little sister to him." She glared and he almost laughed. "I know he won't do as thorough a job as you, but he'll take care of it."

She sighed. "I wasn't going to kill him or anything."

"I didn't think you were." It was mostly true.

"I just wanted to give him a piece of my mind," Aisha went on. "I mean seriously. How could he do something so _stupid_?"

"You heard what he said -"

"Doesn't mean I believe it."

"Come on, Aisha. What reason would he have had to sleep with Katherine, when all he had to do was turn around and go back to the castle and Kimberly would probably have married him on the spot?"

"I don't know. You're the man, you tell me."

Rocky sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "It's not like he and Kim were married when it happened, anyway," he pointed out. "And if Rita put a spell on him and Kat, it wasn't really his fault _or_ Kat's. It was Rita's."

"Kimberly isn't angry because of what happened," she responded tightly. "She's angry because he didn't tell her. He wasn't honest with her."

"Maybe he didn't tell her because he knew she'd completely flip out and not even try to understand," Rocky suggested, even though he knew Aisha would only take it as a jibe.

"Yeah, you would think that," Aisha muttered angrily, but she did not rise to the bait.

He was almost disappointed by that, and then stopped to wonder why in the world he wanted Aisha to fight with him. And why he wanted to fight now, of all times. They were supposed to be looking for Kimberly and helping try to mend the bad situation they'd found themselves in. They weren't supposed to be squabbling amongst themselves.

But he _did_ want to fight. He wanted to scream at Aisha until she would give up and listen to him and stop being so damn stubborn... or lash out and fight back. When he thought about it, he realized that was what he wanted: for her to fight back. For her to hurt him, and to hurt her in turn. It was actually quite difficult not to keep pushing her, to see if he could make that happen.

It made no sense...

"Rocky?" Aisha asked, brows furrowing slightly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure," he managed to say, surprised he hadn't bitten his lip bloody in his effort not to snap at her. "Something about this place doesn't feel right."

"So you feel it, too, huh?" she asked quietly, in that soothing tone of hers that always calmed him down. It did not work so well as normal, here, but it helped a little. "This place has a bad energy. Let's keep moving." They started walking again, and she went on, "I think Kimberly might be sensitive to it, too. She's not normally quite this jealous and possessive. Or this reckless."

"So how far do you think she's gone?" he asked. He was almost afraid to hear the answer, thinking they might spend all night chasing after her. Realizing that it was getting quite dark, he added, "We need to find her soon, or I don't think we're going to find her at all."

"I know," Aisha agreed. Her tone suggested that she was rapidly running out of patience.

They walked for a ways, before Rocky stopped and frowned. "It's almost like this stupid forest doesn't want us to find her. That tree looks too familiar. I think we passed it a while back." He paused. "Aisha, are you even..."

But Aisha did not seem to be paying attention to him at all. He glanced back, noting absently that a fog was rolling in with the dusk, but she was turned away from him. Her head was cocked to one side slightly, as if she was listening to something far away.

"Kim!" Aisha shouted, and to Rocky's utter disbelief she bolted off into the fog and left him behind without even looking back.

"Hey, Aisha," he called after her, annoyed. "We're not supposed to split up, remember?"

There was no answer. When she did not come back right away, he sighed and went after her. He realized with a chill that he had completely lost sight of her in the fog, which seemed to have grown even thicker since she disappeared. It almost seemed to be grasping at him...

Concerned, he called out again, "Aisha! Come back here!"

Nothing.

"Aisha!"

Nothing.

He tried a different approach: "Kimberly!"

The forest around him was completely silent. "Okay," he muttered, half to himself and half to his wayward friends, "this is probably why Dulcea told us _not to go off alone_."

He felt like something was watching him. "Kimberly! Aisha! Come on, I know you're out there. Can't we just go back to camp and play games later?"

He continued walking in the direction where Aisha had run off, and did not see the pit until it was nearly too late and he had almost fallen into it. He only just managed to grab onto a tree root that protruded from the lip of the pit, or he would have fallen all the way to the bottom. A quick glance down showed that the bottom was filled with wooden spikes.

Not a sinkhole, then. A trap.

"Aisha!" he shouted. "'Sha, I need some help here! I'm not kidding!"

Aisha did not answer, but he heard someone say, "Fear not."

"Hello?" he asked, suddenly frightened beyond all reason. He looked up and thought he saw someone, but it was only the fog. "Is someone up there?"

"Don't be afraid," the voice whispered sweetly. "I will set you free."

The fog-figure reached down and touched his hand, and Rocky stopped struggling.

 

 

Jason waited until the others were well out of earshot before he said anything more to Tommy at all. When it came down to it, the delay was more because he wasn't completely sure how to handle the situation than because he did not want the others to hear what he said. He had known that he had to find a way to break up the volatile mess that was Aisha and Kimberly versus Tommy, but beyond that, he didn't have a clue.

He was as shocked as anyone to find out that Tommy had been unfaithful to Kimberly, though the fact that it had been a result of another one of Rita's spells was anything but a surprise. And as much as he wanted to just smash Tommy's face for hurting Kimberly like that, he wanted answers more. He'd placed his trust in Tommy before, and Tommy had proved that trust to be well-placed. But now...

"Mind telling me what the hell you were thinking?" he asked finally.

Tommy looked distinctly unhappy. "I don't know," he admitted. "I guess I just thought it would all somehow... go away. I mean... Kat was protected. Rita was dead. I was marrying Kim. It was never going to happen again, so it just seemed like... Why mess things up by telling her?" He held his head in his hands. "I really messed things up anyway, didn't I?"

"That's putting it mildly," Jason agreed. "The question now is how you're going to fix it."

"I don't know." Tommy looked at him then. Jason wasn't sure he'd ever seen such pain in another person's eyes, even back when Tommy had first broken free from Rita's spell. "You know Kimberly better than anyone. Do you think I even _can_ fix this?"

"You don't have much of a choice," Jason pointed out.

"That's what I thought," Tommy groaned.

"Sooner or later, she's gonna calm down, and then you have to talk to her."

Tommy paced. "I don't have a clue what to say to her," he muttered. "I don't know how to explain what happened in a way that won't make her want to kill me."

Jason wanted to sympathize, but he also knew just how much this would have hurt Kimberly. He wasn't going to make this easy for Tommy just because that would have made life easier for him, too. He crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Tommy with a stony glare. "Maybe you should try explaining it to me."

"I thought it was _her_," Tommy said after a long silence. "I was just so... happy that she'd come after me, that she would be with me even if that journey was the end of me. I never even questioned it. I never thought, 'what if this isn't really her?' It didn't even occur to me that Rita might have done something." He groaned. "I'm the world's biggest fool."

"You never stopped to think that maybe _this_ is why Rita did that?" Jason asked quietly. "She may be dead and gone, but she's still having her revenge."

"Damn it, why me? And why do I keep falling for it?"

"I don't know," Jason said, feeling profoundly glad that this had happened to Tommy and not to him. "But if you don't patch things up with Kim somehow, you're letting Rita win."

"It's the 'somehow' part that's getting me," Tommy grumbled.

"Try telling her what you just told me," Jason advised. Seeing Tommy's skeptical look, he added, "She might be a bit more understanding if she knew that the reason Rita's spell worked so well was that she was using your love for Kimberly against you."

Tommy blinked, confused. Apparently he had never considered that possibility, either.

"Look," Jason went on. "You have to know the story of Kimberly's parents. Everyone does. Well, when she found out you slept with Kat, she had a knee-jerk reaction and freaked out because she thought you were turning out just like her father. She thought she'd misjudged you. She thought she'd trusted you, and you'd broken that trust." Tommy winced. "Give her a bit to calm down. Think about what happened. And I mean _actually_ think about it. Quit panicking because you screwed up, and think about what you did and why. And then_ tell her that_."

"I don't know whether to be glad you're helping me, or scared," Tommy admitted.

"You get one chance," Jason said, smiling coldly. "Mess it up again and _I'll_ fix it, and you're not going to like it if I do."

"Well, thanks," Tommy said, and Jason could tell he meant it. "You have no idea how much it means to me that you keep giving me chances when no one else will."

"Thank me by proving me right."

"You know I'll try." He clearly did not hold out much hope of reconciling with Kimberly, even with Jason's advice, not that Jason could blame him. He'd screwed up in a big way. Fixing it wasn't going to be easy, but Jason did think it was possible. Kimberly wasn't entirely unreasonable, and she loved Tommy with all her heart. That was why his perceived infidelity had hurt her so much, but it was also the key to setting everything right.

With that matter settled, at least for now, Jason began to wonder what had happened to their companions. It shouldn't have taken that long for them to track down Kimberly and Katherine. In fact, he'd expected to catch glimpses of them lurking around the edges of camp, trying to hear what he was saying to Tommy. But there was no sign of anyone. Either they were better at hiding than he thought, or something was amiss.

"Hey, Tommy. I think something's up."

Tommy looked confused at first, then it dawned on him. "They should be back by now. Unless Kim's being extra stubborn..."

Jason nodded. They both fell silent and listened, but the forest was silent around them.

"Think we should check it out?" Tommy asked.

Jason wasn't sure that was a good idea. In fact, he suddenly had a very bad feeling about the whole affair. Splitting everyone up may not have been the great idea he'd thought it was.

As if in response to his thoughts, white fog started to seep from between the trees, oozing into the campsite. A shadow seemed to fall over everything, though the sun had not suddenly dropped farther than it should have in the sky.

Tommy did not even have time to get out of the way before it was upon him, and then he seemed transfixed. He stared blankly into the whiteness.

Jason skirted around the closest tendrils to grab his sword from where it lay strapped to his pack by the fire. "Yo, Tommy, snap out of it," he said, but Tommy gave no sign of having heard. Suddenly he knew without a doubt that this was what had befallen their missing friends, and this was why Dulcea had warned them to stick together. She had known this was out there, and had sent them right into it anyway.

But he knew that being angry with Dulcea would not save him, or his friends. So he turned his anger instead on the strange fog.

It billowed around him in every direction; he was trapped, but he would be damned if he would go down without a fight. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and tried to draw it, but the moment he touched it, he felt suddenly frozen and could not move.

"Don't be afraid," a voice whispered sweetly. He looked, but could not see anyone in the fog. "I will set you free."

There was something about that voice he just couldn't trust. Something slimy and slithery and sneaky; he was absolutely certain it was lying, if only because it sounded so very tempting. And the harder he fought against its persuasion, the more solid the speaker seemed to become.

He managed to take a step backward.

"Don't be afraid," the voice repeated. "Just give me all your trust, and I will set you free."

"No." He tried to take another step backward, but it felt as if a great weight was pressing down on him. He could not move.

The speaker moved toward him. He could see now that it was a human figure made out of the fog itself, white and misty and transparent, but clearly human and dressed in ancient armor. It had no legs, but seemed to float above the ground so that it was the same height as a man would have been. A sword hung at its belt, but its hands were empty.

"What the -"

"Get ready," it murmured, grasping his face in those ghostly hands, its sweetly seductive voice cracking through the last remnants of his resolve, "to join the Last Crusade."

 

 

From the moment Kimberly had heard what Katherine said to Tommy, she had felt anger flare white-hot in her heart. And everything had gone downhill from there. She had tried to stop it, but in her betrayal the angry, hateful words just kept pouring out.

First she'd driven Tommy away, then she'd stormed off. And then Katherine had had the nerve to follow her and refuse to leave.

And even though eventually she had begun to see what Katherine was saying and to understand, a little, what had happened, it was too late. Her anger was out of control. And she did not know how to stop it.

"I can't stop it," she'd managed to say, but Katherine had no idea what she was talking about. Katherine had no idea the danger she was in.

But she could feel it.

_Help me, Bryndis!_ she thought desperately, but there was no answer from her ancestor's spirit. There was only the anger... and her magic. The magic she had been struggling with for so long now seemed unleashed and untamable. She could feel it roaring around her, though obviously Katherine could not. She could feel it spiraling... faster and faster and faster and faster, until it plunged into the earth beneath her feet.

And then Bryndis was there, but it was too late. Kimberly no longer controlled the magic within her. It brushed Bryndis aside as easily as it had Kimberly and sought deeper. Deeper, deeper, beyond any depth of power Kimberly had ever reached before. Down to the deep, hot depths of the earth it went, dragging her spirit with it, and there it, she, found... something. Something with unbelievable power, all the power she could ever need and more. Heedless of her ancestor's shouted warning and the terror in her own heart, Kimberly grabbed hold of it...

...and screamed.

Power like fire coursed through her veins, hurling her forward, searing every inch of her. She screamed again and again, her fingers curling uselessly against the pain as she found herself suddenly in her body again, and then finally, somewhere the pain began to subside. Her body adjusted to the invasion, and she could open her eyes and see again. But it was as if she looked through the eyes of another.

She could see, now.

She had been betrayed. She was hurting. She was furious, and she had the power to...

She doubled over in pain as another rush of power flowed into her from somewhere deep below. Power, and _rage_.

She was angry, so angry, and she had the power to destroy that which was breaking her heart.

Kimberly pulled herself upright and nocked an arrow to her bow, which had been slung over her shoulder from the day's journey, and then turned and fired it directly at Katherine's heart.

Kat shrieked and hurled herself to the ground as soon as she saw Kimberly turning toward her; the arrow missed its intended victim by less than an inch. "Kimberly! What are you doing?" she cried.

Kimberly ignored her and nocked another arrow. Kat took off running into the forest, heading back toward camp. Kimberly followed slowly, firing arrows whenever she got a chance. But Katherine had a cat's luck, or at least a few lives, and escaped the arrows unharmed.

And then she stopped short at a strange wall of fog that seemed to surround the camp site. Kimberly hardly noticed that. She only knew that her prey was now within her grasp.

This time Kat did not even bother to try to escape. She just stared in horror as Kimberly took aim. "You are the reason this happened," Kimberly said in a voice that was not her own, a voice that she could not silence. "I will end your miserable existence."

There were tears in Kat's eyes, but she made no attempt to deny it.

Some small part of Kimberly's conscience knew that Kat was not to blame for what had happened, and that tiny part made her hesitate. Kat wasn't to blame for what had happened, or for Tommy's failure to inform her. The person responsible for the deception was Rita Repulsa, and she was dead. The person responsible for not telling her what had happened was Tommy. And that still wasn't Kat's fault.

_Yes it is!_ the angry power inside of her screamed.

"No, it's not," Kimberly said aloud, suddenly aware that she was ablaze. Shaking, stunned to find herself unburned, she lowered her bow and let her arrow fall to the ground.

She was suddenly afraid of this power, whatever it was. She had come dangerously close to killing Katherine when its fury had overcome her, and she had no idea if she would be able to regain control if she lost it again.

Tears slid down her cheeks, and she realized suddenly that her body was still in agony. "What have I done?" she murmured. "Kat, you have to get away from me. I don't know how long I can control this..."

_You have summoned a power you may not be able to control,_ Bryndis's voice tartly informed her. Kimberly felt a pang of shame at hearing that; the First Queen had never openly disapproved of her actions before.

"What can I do?" she asked.

_You must fight,_ Bryndis answered. Her voice was horribly faint, as if a great distance separated them. Or maybe it was just the roaring of flames in Kimberly's ears. _Your friends are in great danger - and so are you._

For the first time, Kimberly truly noticed the white fog that had walled off the camp. Her eyes went wide and fear for her friends threatened to overwhelm her. The fiery anger subsided, and with it the pain and flames... but she could still feel that molten presence in her heart, and wondered what it was that she had dredged up from the depths of the earth, and if she would ever be free of it again.


	30. Picking Up the Pieces

Kimberly took a deep breath to steady herself.

White fog swirled in front of her, forming a wall that separated her from the campsite and her friends, or whatever was left of them. Without even going near it, she could tell that it was no natural fog. She was afraid to even try to touch it, much less pass through it. But her friends were on the other side, and she knew they needed her help.

_What do I do?_ she thought. _I'm so not ready for this!_ Not after everything that had happened earlier, when her emotions were already in turmoil. Not when she had just nearly lost control of her magic and killed Katherine.

But there was no answer from Bryndis or anyone else. She would have to figure this out on her own.

Maybe not entirely on her own, she thought, suddenly remembering Katherine's presence. She was not sure how much help the archivist would be, especially since she was scared half to death, but at least she wasn't completely alone. "Katherine," she began, knowing the answer, "Do you know anything about this?"

Kat shook her head. "No. I'm sorry, Your Highness. I don't know anything." Her voice was quiet with fear.

_She's terrified,_ Kimberly realized, _of me_. She had never wanted to be the kind of Queen that people feared; she wanted to be the kind of Queen that people loved and admired. But after the way she had behaved just now, she supposed she deserved Katherine's fear. An apology died on her lips. Instead, she said, "It's not your fault. None of us were prepared for this."

Katherine regarded her warily, as if she expected to be attacked again at any moment. And Kimberly couldn't quite blame her. She could still feel that fiery presence inside her, raging in fury and wanting very badly to be let out again. Tamping down on it even harder, she said, "That's no ordinary fog." Mentally cursing herself for saying something so obvious, she asked, "Do you think that necklace of yours would protect you against it?"

Kat touched the necklace self-consciously. "I... I don't know. All I know is that it's supposed to protect me from magical control. I don't know if it works on other types of magic, too." She turned slightly to glance at the wall of fog. "I wish Dulcea was here."

So did Kimberly. But Dulcea was nowhere to be found, and Kimberly was beginning to fear they would never see her again.

"We have to do something," Kimberly muttered darkly. The only question was what. But she never got to voice that question, because the next thing she knew, Katherine had walked straight into the fog. "Kat!" she cried out, horrified.

Katherine poked her head back out. "Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Finding out if this necklace can protect me from whatever's in this fog."

Kimberly stared at her, confused.

"Well, I'm not much use otherwise," Kat explained, sounding a little sheepish. "So I thought better me than you, right? You've got magic of your own to help you, and you're always so strong. And I'm just... me. If something happened to me, you'd still be okay."

Kimberly begged to differ, but she wasn't about to tell Kat that. She might have the ability to use magic, but that did not mean she had the slightest idea how to use it in this situation. She was completely at a loss, whether Kat could see it or not.

Kat stepped back out of the fog, looking every bit as lost as Kim felt. "I can get through," she admitted, "I think. But what should we do?"

Kim's thoughts raced. "What's on the other side?"

Kat looked embarrassed. "I didn't go all the way through. I didn't want to leave you waiting too long."

"It's okay," Kimberly assured her, ignoring the way her heart was pounding almost painfully at the thought of going through that fog. "But we have to get through. I just have this very bad feeling..."

"Then come on," Kat said, surprising them both by taking Kimberly by the hand. "Let's see if this charm can protect both of us."

Kimberly nodded. She suddenly had no doubt that Dulcea's charm would indeed protect the two of them from whatever evil magic was in the fog; she could feel the tendrils of magic wrapping around her arm where Kat's hand touched hers. For the first time all afternoon she felt a tiny flicker of hope. Clutching tightly to that small spark, she followed Katherine into the white void...

It was cold as ice within that fog, but it always seemed to swirl away from them, beckoning them forward but never touching either of them. _What are you?_ Kimberly wondered, as if the fog itself were a sort of living creature. _And why have you come to this place now of all times?_

But she had no more time to wonder, because all of a sudden there was no more fog. The two women stumbled into the open almost before they realized what had happened.

She was glad to be out of the white fog, but Kimberly knew immediately that something was indeed very, very wrong. The campsite was not empty. Her friends were all more or less where she had left them when she stormed out earlier, only none of them were moving. They were just standing there, staring into the distance as if they had been frozen in time or were under some sort of spell.

"Aisha," she began, but her friend gave no sign of having heard her at all. "Aisha!" Still nothing. "Billy, Rocky, Adam..."

None of them moved.

"Jason!"

Not even a flicker.

Despairing, she turned to the last member of their party. "Tommy?"

But even he seemed completely entranced.

For a horrible instant, Kimberly feared that Rita had somehow survived her apparent death and had come to claim her revenge, or else had come back to haunt them at the worst possible time. And then she knew that could not be the case, because she had seen Rita die with her own eyes. She had been part of it. And the magic inside her knew with absolute certainty that Rita was gone.

So, then, who was behind this?

She paused, wondering where that thought had come from. But the more she thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. This fog did not behave like any natural fog, so either it was a creature itself or something - or someone - was controlling it. And why? To prevent her from reaching her friends.

She had too many questions and no answers at all. But she pushed all of them aside for now but one: how could she free her friends from this trap? First, she decided grimly, she would get rid of that fog. She had no idea how she was going to do it, but she knew it had to be done, and soon. She was still a bit afraid to try using her magic, but she knew she had no choice.

She tried to ground herself, closing her eyes and reaching into the world around her for power. She was aware of Kat speaking, asking her something, but she ignored her for now. Right now, magic was more important than words. Deep inside, she could still feel something burning, fiery and angry, but for now she did her best to keep that thing, whatever it was, caged up. _I'll deal with you later_, she thought. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of grasping at nothing, she found what she had been searching for.

There was magic in the earth in this place, and she could draw upon it as Dulcea had taught her to. It had a strange feel, however, and at first she shied away from it. What if it was tainted magic? What if it might affect her in some horrible way, like the fiery beast she now held trapped inside her?

She grabbed hold of that power, fearless in her desperation, and opened her eyes. Of their own accord, her hands had moved in front of her belly to cup a shining orb of light. It was so deep a pink as to be almost violet, and it shone with an angry beauty. It would, she had no doubt, dissipate the fog. All she had to do was release it.

_Whatever you are,_ she thought with a grim smile,_ you are _not_ stronger than me._

The orb in her hands began to crackle, tiny shocks of lightning shooting across its surface. She lifted it over her head, shocked to find that it now seemed impossibly heavy, and loosed its power.

Light flashed, and a forceful thunderclap threw her - and Katherine, she noted belatedly - to the ground. She landed flat on her back, the impact leaving her breathless. But when the light had faded, the fog was gone. She could now clearly see the forest around the campsite, dark in the early evening gloom. It might have seemed menacing under other circumstances, but now she was glad for that darkness. At least it was natural.

Breathing hard, she tried to get up and found that she could not. So for a while she just lay there on the ground, breathing and wondering where her strength had gone. It occurred to her that it had taken more out of her than she had thought to summon magic here, and to keep that fire-creature from getting free again. But she had managed it, and she was proud of that. She laughed quietly, to herself.

"Are you all right, Your Highness?" Katherine ventured finally.

Kimberly let her head fall to the side. "Yes," she said, smiling in what she hoped was a reassuring way. "I had no idea I could do that, is all."

"The fog is gone," Kat told her, and she realized that Kat was able to sit up. At least there was that. "But no one is moving..."

Kimberly groaned. "Why couldn't something be easy for once?"

With a great deal of effort, she managed to sit up and look around. Kat was right. Their friends were exactly as they had been before, as if the magical explosion had not affected them at all. Or as if something had shielded them from its power.

When she thought she had recovered enough of her strength, she slung her bow over her shoulder again and attempted to stand. But the moment she got her feet under her, she crumpled and would have fallen if not for Kat moving to support her. "Your Highness!"

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I've got to figure out what's wrong with them..."

"But if you need to rest first..."

"I'm fine," she repeated. "Just give me a hand."

Together they managed to make it over to where Aisha was standing, staring off into the forest. And yet even close up, there was nothing visibly wrong at all.

"Aisha," Kimberly murmured, but by now she knew that Aisha wouldn't hear her. Kat reached out to touch the other woman's shoulder, as if to physically shake her out of it, only to let out a squeak and yank her hand back just before it could touch Aisha.

"That hurt," Kat said, staring at her hand as if she expected to see burn marks.

It was something, at least, even if Kimberly did not know what to make of it. Hoping she had enough strength left, she closed her eyes and tried something new. She had never tried this technique before, but Dulcea had once spoken of it. It followed the same principle as drawing in power from the earth around her, but instead of reaching into the earth and making its power her own, she spread out her magical awareness through the air. The sensation was odd and disorienting, and left her feeling lightheaded...

...but when she opened her eyes she could _see_. The entire world seemed tinged with pink, and through this veil she could see things that her eyes normally could not. This way, she could see exactly what was wrong with her friends, and it left her reeling.

Her friends were not entranced. They were being seduced, devoured.

Each of them was held in the embrace of a disgusting, decaying form that might have once been a person, though nothing had been visible before she used her magic sight. Now, though, she could see that shining tendrils ran from each of her friends' hearts to the mouths of the creatures that had ensnared them. She could see the remains of armor and weapons on those transparent figures, and guessed that they had once been warriors of some kind. So what were they doing now, clutching her friends so closely and sucking them dry like that?

She wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

She shook Katherine off, drew her bow and nocked an arrow. Before it could react, she took aim at the ghost's head and fired.

The arrow had no effect. Resisting the desire to collapse, she charged the next arrow with as much magical power as she could summon and fired again. But that, too, failed to have any effect upon the ghost.

Despair clawed at her. If she hadn't gotten so upset earlier, if she hadn't run off like that, maybe her friends would not have been caught like this. If only Dulcea would come back, she might have some advice. If only...

_Pure iron can harm a denizen of the netherworld._ It was her mother's voice that came out of nowhere to guide her.

Kimberly's eyes went wide. "Mom?" she asked, hoping against hope, but the question met only silence. "Iron," she muttered, when she was certain there would not be a response. "I need iron."

"Iron?" Kat stared at her, obviously confused by the sudden certainty.

"Don't ask."

"Where are we going to find iron?" Kat asked. It irritated Kimberly to be questioned like that, but she had to admit Kat had a point. She had no idea where they were going to find iron, only that they needed to. "Would steel work? Or do we need pure iron?"

Kimberly ignored her and made her way through the camp, pausing briefly to dig through a couple of their packs on her way. She was pleased to see that Kat was following her example, but she already knew that none of them had brought anything made of iron with them. They had steel knives and mail armor, of course, but her mother's voice had said "pure iron".

"Your Highness..." Kat began, trailing off ominously.

Kimberly looked up, then followed Kat's gaze. They had come to the opposite side of the camp now, and could look out over the open area filled with small hills that bordered their campsite. It took her a moment to see what Kat had noticed, but when she did her blood ran cold.

The small hills that dotted the landscape to the north and east and had seemed to picturesque by daylight were not hills at all, but burial mounds. Each one had an entrance set into its western side, facing the setting sun. Worse, many of those entryways were now open. The stones that had closed them off had moved, or had been moved, leaving dark gaping tunnels behind.

The idea of going inside one of those tombs made her shudder, but she knew she was unlikely to find iron anywhere else. But if these burial mounds were as old as she guessed they were, and were the graves of warriors, then she just might be able to find an iron sword or knife in one of them. Swallowing her fear, Kimberly headed toward the hills.

Katherine followed along behind her, and together they picked their way carefully between the mounds. The moon was rising, which made it easier to see, but Kimberly did not see any sign that might set one of the mounds apart from the others. She glanced back toward the camp and wondered how much time her friends might have left. Not much, she guessed.

After a bit of wandering, she found herself standing in front of the entrance to a mound that seemed to be somewhat larger than the others. She absolutely did not want to go inside of it, but knew that she had to.

"Wait here," she said to Kat, and then ducked through the entrance before she could lose her nerve. The tunnel was so small that she had to bend almost double to fit, and she was anything but tall. It was dark as pitch after a few steps, but she found that she had been unconsciously continuing to use her magic sight all this time, and could see just fine in the darkness. After a short distance, the tunnel widened and she could see some sort of sarcophagus looming in the darkness. The massive stone lid had shifted, leaving whatever was inside uncovered.

She did not want to know what was inside, but she forced herself to look anyway. Her friends were counting on her; she could risk seeing the remains of a dead body. The corpse inside the stone coffin was surprisingly well preserved, or maybe it was just younger than she thought it was, and it was wearing elaborate iron armor. But unfortunately it was damp inside the tomb, and the iron had turned to rust.

She almost turned to go back outside, but caught sight of a sheathed sword lying by the corpse's side. Her hair stood on end as she leaned over the edge of the sarcophagus and pulled the sword out. It was still in its sheath after all these years, and when she pulled it out she saw that it was miraculously free of rust. The sheath must have protected it from the water that had seeped in and rusted the armor.

Moving carefully, because the sword still looked wickedly sharp in spite of its age, Kimberly crept back out of the tomb. She did not look back, but thought she felt ghostly fingers grasping at her arms and legs as she went.

"This should do it," she said to Katherine, holding up the sword as she emerged into the moonlight again. "Come on."

They raced back to their friends then, as if more ghosts would come out of the tombs to pursue them. There was no sound, but Kimberly did not dare to look back. She would not let anything slow her down or distract her.

She could hardly breathe and her muscles burned even from the short run back to the campsite, but she did not slow down. She charged straight ahead, adjusting her grip on the blade as she ran, and when she reached the first of the wraiths she slashed recklessly. She missed hitting Aisha by mere inches, but this time when her weapon passed through the wraith, there was resistance. The ghost howled in silent fury and came after her, but it had to let go of Aisha to do it.

Kimberly scrambled backward a few steps, not sure what to do now that she had the ghost's attention, but it only took a few more frantic slashes for her to realize just how potent iron was against this foe. Three or four light gashes, which would barely have deterred Jason or Tommy, and the ghost was consumed with fire. A few moments later it had evaporated as if it had never been there at all.

When it had vanished, Aisha staggered, then blinked open confused eyes.

Kimberly left her to Katherine. She had already moved on to the next ghost. This one put up more of a fight than the last, but she felt buoyed by hope now. The ghosts were frightening, but she knew how to defeat them, and though she was no expert, she knew enough about using a blade to pull it off.

She killed the second wraith as easily as the first and moved on to the next. And the next and the next, until she was dripping sweat and the only ghost remaining was the one that had coiled itself around Tommy. She paused for a moment and just stared at it, fearing that her strength would give out and she wouldn't be able to save him. _Maybe I can just give the sword to Jason,_ she thought, but she knew it had to be her. Jason probably couldn't see the wraiths. She could.

As she approached, the last wraith leered at her. It almost seemed amused that she would try to destroy it, or that she would try to free Tommy. While the others had been more or less androgynous, this one struck Kimberly as being decidedly female, and her gaze was malicious. As Kimberly drew closer, the wraith uncoiled herself from around Tommy and came to meet her.

Kimberly brandished her sword, too weary for words or even anger.

The wraith drew its own sword and continued its slow, drifting approach, but Kimberly was content to wait for it. She had no idea how she was even still standing at this point, but she knew she had to defeat this last wraith and then she could rest, and that was the thought that kept her going. Finally, the wraith had had enough of waiting and charged at her. Somehow, she parried its attack and managed to fend it off long enough to find an opening.

It was much stronger than the other ghosts, but it was just as weak to her iron. It recoiled every time her blade struck its, and then it gave her the opening she had been praying for. One thrust was all it took. The wraith was incinerated almost before she withdrew her blade.

Finding herself suddenly standing in the midst of her very confused friends, with no ghosts to be seen, Kimberly was overcome by relief and exhaustion. Fear and anger and power drained away from her as she fainted.

When she came to, she was lying cradled in Aisha's arms near the fire. Katherine stood nearby looking terrified again, and Tommy and the other men were staring at her with looks of abject horror and worry on their faces.

"What just happened?" she asked. Her head was pounding and everything seemed hazy.

"You tell us," Aisha said. "One minute you were fighting something none of us could see, and the next you just collapsed."

"And where did you get that sword?" Rocky chimed in. Adam elbowed him.

Kimberly struggled to remember, but could recall little of what had happened. "There were ghosts," she said at last. "These hills... they're burial mounds. The ghosts were trying to... I don't know." It suddenly struck her just how little she actually knew about what had just happened.

Tommy moved to comfort her, but she jerked away from his touch. She was happy that he was alive and no longer under the ghosts' spell, but she was also still very angry with him.

"Do any of you remember anything?" It took Kimberly a moment to realize that the quiet voice belonged to Katherine. "When we got here, you were all just... frozen."

Aisha shook her head. "After the, uh, argument earlier everything's kind of a blank." Rocky, Adam, and Billy chorused their agreement with Aisha. Tommy remained stubbornly silent, looking hurt by Kimberly's rejection more than anything.

But Jason said, "Yeah, actually I _do_ remember something." All eyes were on him immediately, and he looked a little uncomfortable at the sudden attention before continuing. "The first thing I noticed was this weird fog that came in. I don't know what it was about it, but I knew it wasn't natural. And then this person came out of it. It wanted me to trust it, for some reason. When I wouldn't, it came after me anyway. It said something about a 'last crusade' before I blacked out." He paused, having come to the end of what he knew. "I have no idea what it means, though."

Kimberly had to agree with him; none of it seemed to make any sense. Her confusion could have been due to her earlier exertion, but she had a feeling there was a piece missing from this puzzle and without that piece they might never figure it out. She was about to suggest that they worry about this later, after she had gotten some rest, when Billy pushed his way past the others and pressed a mug of very hot tea into her hands.

"Thank you," she murmured, a bit surprised at Billy being the one to come forward and offer assistance.

"Adam's idea," he admitted.

"Well, then, thank you both," she said, a little louder so Adam would hear, too.

Silence held for a moment, then Tommy said, "So all we've got is that there were ghosts, they apparently came out of the hills over there, and they said something about a 'last crusade'? That's not much to go on."

"No, it's not," Aisha and Rocky said at almost the same time. Aisha glared at Rocky, then continued, "And maybe we should put off talking about it more until tomorrow. That way everyone will have a chance to try and remember what they can, and Kimberly can get some rest. We've all had a rough day today, but her especially, I think."

Kimberly sipped her tea and tried not to look at Tommy. In her effort to avoid him, she ended up meeting Katherine's gaze and gave a small smile. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about Kat, but in the end she just couldn't hate her. In fact, she almost felt sorry for her...

"Come on," Aisha said gently, taking Kimberly's mug and helping her stand. "Let's get you back to your tent so you can get some rest."

Hoping her friends would have enough sense to make Tommy bed down elsewhere for the night, Kimberly did not resist.

 

 

Later that night, long after full dark had settled over the land, Katherine sat by herself at the edge of the firelight and looked gloomily out over the row of hills.

_Graves_, Jason reminded himself as he went over and sat beside her, _tombs_.

Those mounds had housed the vengeful spirits of the Last Crusade. Jason still was not entirely sure why he was so sure the spirits themselves were warriors that served under that name, but he was. _Get ready to join the Last Crusade_, the spirit had said, just before ensnaring him. It could just have easily been referring to some long-slain enemy, but he did not think so. In fact he was almost positive that it had wanted to recruit him, whether he wanted to join the ghostly soldiers or not.

And as for why those spirits had emerged from their tombs and attacked in the first place, he had his suspicions. He did not know much of anything about Zedd, the man who ruled in Phaedos, but now it seemed that no matter what he did he could feel eyes on him, like he was being watched. _Dulcea was right_, he thought,_ we are being watched, and Zedd knows what we're after and doesn't want us to find it._

What had happened tonight, that was just Zedd's first attempt at stopping them. Jason had no doubt there would be more to follow in the coming days.

But for the moment he brushed all of that aside, because there was nothing he could do about it right now anyway, and because Kat really looked in need of some cheering up.

"Keeping watch with me tonight?" he asked.

She started, as if she had not heard him approach. "I'm sorry," she said, eyes fixed on the ground. "After everything that happened today I... I couldn't sleep."

"No need to apologize. I don't mind having company. Keeping watch can get kind of boring sometimes," he admitted.

"You're not angry with me for what happened today?" she asked quietly after a moment.

"Why would I be angry? You were only doing what you thought was right. You could've picked a better time, maybe..." He shrugged. "But what's done is done."

"Thanks. I think."

They were silent for a while after that, both of them content to simply look out into the darkness that surrounded their tiny fire. Jason wondered what else was lurking out there, ready to destroy them, and decided that for now he would rather not know. They had enough trouble now, just between the members of their little group.

Not for the first time, he found his thoughts turning toward the absent members of the group. Zack and Trini... Where were they now? And how were they faring on their quest? They had to be somewhere in far-off Taye by now. Maybe they had already reunited Trini with her parents. He smiled a bit at the thought, but though he was glad she had finally found her way home - and back to her family - he really could have used her insight about now. She would have known exactly how to deal with the situation with Kimberly and Tommy. And if she didn't know, she would have figured something out.

Katherine sighed; jolted back to reality, Jason realized he hadn't been paying attention at all. Not to her, and certainly not to their surroundings. Deciding it would be better to keep Kat talking than risk getting lost in his thoughts again, he said, "Something's still bothering you, isn't it?"

For a long time, she didn't say anything. Then: "It's nothing."

"Doesn't sound like nothing."

She looked at him then and he got the unsettling impression that she was scrutinizing him, looking for ulterior motives.

"I feel useless," she admitted finally. "There was nothing I could do to help the Qu... Kimberly. All I did was stand and wait for her while she saved everyone. And make her angry in the first place." She sighed. "Truth be told, I'm not even sure why I'm here anymore."

"Dulcea would say that everything happens for a reason," he told her, though he was not sure if he believed it himself. "And sooner or later you'll find the reason you came with us."

She frowned, obviously displeased with what he had said. "What if the reason I came with you..."

She sounded like she might start crying, and he found himself regretting starting this conversation. If there was something he felt he was worse at handling than an angry Kimberly, it was a crying woman. But Kat did not cry, but she didn't finish that thought, either.

Finally, he said, "You may as well tell me."

Her hands fidgeted in her lap. "What if the reason I came with you, what if all along it was just some last piece of Rita's spell? What if my only purpose for being here really _was_ to cause all this trouble? To create this rift between Kimberly and Tommy?"

"Do you really believe that?"

"I don't want to..."

"Then don't."

Startled, she looked at him. He met her gaze calmly, and went on, "I don't know everything that happened between you and Rita and Tommy. I don't _want_ to. But I do know that Rita is dead and Dulcea freed you from her magic. So I don't believe for a minute that you came along just to cause trouble. I think you wanted to help, and I know that one day you're going to get a chance to do just that."

She actually smiled a little and looked a bit relieved. "Thanks," she said. "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that."

"Actually," he said, thinking back to how Tommy had needed someone to have faith in him after breaking free of Rita's control, and again more recently, "I think I do. And I'm glad I could help."

She stood then, and stepped away. "I think I could sleep now," she told him.

"Good. Then go get some rest. We're going to have another long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Are you going to keep watch all night?" she asked.

He chuckled. "No. I'll get Tommy to take over in an hour or two."

"Tommy?" She seemed surprised.

"That's what happens when you make a Queen angry," he told her. "You end up not being exempt from standing watch anymore."

That seemed to amuse her for a moment, at least. Then she gave a little wave good-night and turned and went on her way. He watched her go, glad that she at least could end the night on a happier note.

Once she had gone, everything was quiet. After a while, Jason got up and settled closer to the fire. Gradually, his thoughts began to turn as dark and impenetrable as the night around him. What else was out there, he wondered, that he might fail to defend his companions from? What sort of horrors might he be leading them toward? And what had happened to Dulcea, that she had not yet returned from her errand?

By the time he remembered to give Tommy a turn at the watch, the sky to the east was beginning to lighten. Cursing himself for losing track of the time, he roused Tommy and then collapsed into bed himself to snatch a few hours of sleep while he had the chance.


	31. Bad Things Coming

They left the campsite beside the burial mounds with the dawn. Two days later, they were still heading east, having barely stopped moving long enough for a brief rest in the middle of the night. No one seemed willing to talk about what had happened, and for the most part they walked in silence, but they all wanted to get as far as possible from that place.

Kimberly, in particular, seemed subdued. Although, Tommy thought, it could just have seemed that way because she was refusing to speak with him. In the blink of an eye, he'd had his unwitting infidelity revealed and had become an outcast in the group that had once welcomed him. Billy seemed pragmatic about the whole mess, and Rocky and Adam had made it clear that they were more or less neutral on the subject, but the girls… Only Jason really seemed willing to give him a chance to redeem himself.

_Kimberly_, he thought gloomily, for all the good it did him, _I would never knowingly try to hurt you_. But for now, Kimberly wasn't interested in any of that, nor did she seem to care that he'd been tricked into doing it in the first place. As she had stated, repeatedly and emphatically, all she wanted to do was keep going, find Jason's sword, and go home. And at this point no one was going to argue with her.

So they kept going. The land they passed through became increasingly rugged with each mile they walked. It felt as if the dampness and fog pervaded everything. Sounds seemed quieted by the air itself, and the shadows among the trees seemed to stretch and magnify all on their own, with no regard to the sun's direction. Worse, everyone was on edge, jumping at the slightest movement of a branch and slashing at stray tendrils of mist with weapons that were always at the ready. They all remembered too well what had happened when that strange white fog rolled in.

But this fog seemed totally innocent, or at least it was content to lurk in the shadows and bide its time.

Toward the end of the day, Tommy found himself trailing pretty far behind the others as they made their way through an especially tangled part of the forest. His mood was darker than it had been for a long time. He was tired and heartsore, and he was beginning to lose hope of ever setting things right. How could he, when Kimberly wouldn't even look at him?

He had gone through so much to redeem himself, to be a man worthy of Kimberly, and Rita was going to win in the end.

As he trudged along, he became gradually aware of the sound of hoofbeats. At first he thought he must be imagining it, but the sound grew stronger and louder with each passing moment. And it was not just a couple of horses; Tommy guessed the number to be at least twelve or fifteen, all coming out of the west just like he and his companions had. What he could not tell was whether the beasts belonged to friend or foe. But in light of recent events, he wasn't going to take any chances.

When he was certain he wasn't hearing things, he sped up, sprinting to catch up with Jason, Billy, and the others.

"Something's coming," he told them breathlessly when he was close enough to avoid shouting. "I heard hoofbeats."

In this, at least, none of them doubted him. Indeed, they could no doubt hear the same sounds themselves.

Jason listened for a moment before springing into action. "Kat, Billy, Kim, and Aisha: get off the road and hide." Kimberly and Aisha voiced arguments almost immediately, but Jason ignored them. "Rocky and Adam, you take that side of the path. Tommy and I'll take this side. Take cover, and wait and see what comes along."

Kimberly had been carrying her bow string over her shoulder ever since the incident with the ghosts. It was in her hand now, while the other hand held an arrow at the ready. "I'm not just going to hide somewhere while you put yourselves in danger," she protested.

"I can hold my own in a fight," Aisha added, indignant. Tommy could vouch for that, but judged it best to keep his mouth shut.

"Kimberly," Jason said, sounding tired. "You're the Queen. Like it or not, I'm not going to put you at risk unless I have no other choice. Aisha, your priority is to defend Kimberly. And Kat and Billy can't defend themselves, so someone needs to make sure they're safe."

"Fine," Aisha relented, realizing that in some ways hers was the most critical task. "But I still don't like it."

"If we're lucky, it'll just be Dulcea catching up," Jason went on. "But if it's not, I'd rather be ready for a fight than caught unprepared."

No one could argue with that, though Kimberly clearly wanted to. But in the end she let Aisha and Billy lead her off the path and into the forest toward the north, moving swiftly and almost silently through the underbrush. Rocky and Adam took a few moments to hide their trail and then disappeared into the forest themselves.

Tommy's heart was in his throat as he followed Jason off the path to take up positions just to the south, taking advantage of what cover they could find. Once they were safely hidden, ready to attack or defend if necessary, it seemed as if an eternity passed before the hoofbeats drew close enough to discern the sounds of individual animals. Strangely, there was no sound of any human riders, but having faced ghosts once already, Tommy was not ready to risk being seen just to take a look. He was almost afraid of what he might see.

For a long time, he and Jason waited in tense silence. It must have only been a matter of minutes, but it seemed like an hour or more. And then the sound of hoofbeats slowed, as if the horses' riders were searching for something… or looking for a lost trail. Finally, Tommy caught a glimpse of the animals and breathed a sigh of relief. The horses were fine looking creatures, and obviously alive and breathing. Each one was outfitted with tack of the highest quality, and they were laden with packs of supplies. They bore no riders, but he could see Dulcea walking amongst them.

Almost as soon as Tommy had spotted her, she came to a halt and called out, "You can come out now, my friends."

Cautiously, they did. As Tommy and Jason made their way back onto the road, Rocky and Adam did the same from the other side.

Dulcea's brow furrowed. "Where are Kimberly and the rest of your companions?"

"Hiding," Jason explained. Tommy wondered when she had lost her ability to sense the presence of her companions. Jason didn't notice Tommy's confused expression, and went on, "We heard you following before we could see that it wasn't some new enemy coming after us."

"Then it is as I feared," Dulcea murmured. "You, too, faced difficulties in your journey."

"You could call it that," Tommy muttered.

"I would like to hear about it," Dulcea assured him, "but now is not the time." Turning to Rocky and Adam, she said, "Bring Kimberly and the others back here. We must not linger long. I am pursued."

Both of the men nodded and took off in the direction their friends had gone. Tommy hardly noticed. His blood had run cold when Dulcea said "pursued." He was reluctant to ask what she meant by that, but once Rocky and Adam were gone, he did just that. "Pursued? By what?"

Somehow he knew it wasn't "whom," but "what."

"I miscalculated," she admitted. "I thought we came here unnoticed and in secret, but Lord Zedd knows exactly where we are and what we are doing. His forces sought to delay me from rejoining you, or else to destroy me altogether, and although I managed to escape them I am certain they are on my trail even now. If we do not hurry, we will be forced to stand and fight here, and I do not know if we can win such a battle."

She didn't say as much, but Tommy thought he was beginning to understand why she could no longer sense them. For the first time since he had known her, Dulcea looked tired. Tommy looked to Jason then, as if that might somehow confirm his suspicions, but the other man's face was unreadable.

It wasn't long before they heard their companions returning. Kimberly was quite loud and unsubtle in her victory. Her indignation at having been sent into hiding – when she had been right all along – brought a smile to Tommy's face, at least until he remembered she was angry with him for other reasons, too. He would happily listen to her brag as much as she wanted, if it meant she would forgive him. He realized sheepishly that he was staring at her, intensely wishing she would even just _look at him_.

Thankfully, Dulcea was not in the mood to dawdle. "Come," she said, interrupting Kimberly's joy. "Time is of the essence."

The horses were ready and waiting, and there were enough of them for each of the humans to ride, plus several pack horses. Not only would they be able to ride from this point out, rather than trudging along on foot, they would no longer have to carry their own supplies. Tommy was thankful for that, at least, as they set off again with Dulcea in the lead.

It was a relief not to have to guess the way any longer, for Dulcea seemed quite certain of where she was. Now that she was back with them, he no longer felt quite so inclined to lag behind and sulk, either. It was as if her very presence gave him hope. She'd saved him once, and he had to wonder if maybe she could help him again. He wasn't entirely sure what he thought Dulcea could actually do to encourage Kimberly to forgive him, but it was better than having no hope at all.

 

 

They rode for most of the day and into the night. Clouds were few and far between, but the moon was absent from the sky and it grew very dark very quickly once the sun had set. By that time Billy was exhausted.

It was not simply the long ride that sapped his energy. He had no particular like of horses or riding, but it was the _thinking_ that had exhausted him. Unlike Jason and Tommy, he was not expected to lead the way, nor to negotiate with Dulcea; unlike Rocky and Adam, he was not a warrior, and was not capable (in spite of Aisha's daily lessons) of defending even himself, much less anyone else. All he had to do was follow along and keep his eyes and ears open. And that was the problem.

As much as he had tried to keep his focus on the situation at hand, to keep checking for signs of the pursuers Dulcea was so sure were right behind them, he had been unable to slow his thoughts ever since Dulcea's sudden return.

They had trusted her easily, all of them, from the very beginning. She had helped save Tommy from Rita's grasp. She had singlehandedly saved Jason's life. She had been instrumental in Rita's defeat.

And yet they had not really stopped to wonder about who she really was, or where she had come from, much less what her true motivations might be. They had no idea where her true loyalties lay. Could they really trust her?

He was increasingly less sure about that. Dulcea claimed to be leading them to Phaedos in search of Jason's birthright. But the land they traveled almost certainly could not be Phaedos, the fabled Kingdom of Heaven, dwelling place of magic and magical creatures, the holy kingdom lost long ago to the vagaries of time itself…

Billy had long ago read all that the castle archives preserved concerning Phaedos. He had never heard of the Sword of Power, but even assuming such a thing truly existed (and the ancient, jeweled scabbard that Jason carried seemed to imply that it did) how in the world had _Jason_ come to be its true bearer? Jason's father, Jonathan Scott, was well known for his adventures and his extensive travels, but even he had never traveled to Phaedos. And Isabella Scott, Jason's mother, had almost certainly never traveled that far, either. And so far as Billy knew, the Scotts had been loyal vassals to the Queen for generations. So how in the world had Jason come to possess a bloodline out of legend?

There were too many questions for Billy's taste, and Dulcea was offering no answers.

And now they were fleeing ever deeper into this land that might once have been Phaedos, with only Dulcea's word to tell them they were being chased. Even worse, they had only Dulcea's word to tell them there was anything to seek in the first place.

She had been present when Jason found the scabbard. It was true enough that none of the rest of them could even touch it without being burned, but Billy had to wonder how difficult it would be for one well-versed in magic to create such an object. But if Dulcea had engineered the discovery in the first place in order to ensure this journey would take place, Billy could not for the life of him figure out _why_.

It mystified him, and it worried him. He wished that he could seek Zordon's counsel on the matter, but Dulcea always kept the sorcerer's prison on a chain around her neck.

If he wished to truly indulge in paranoia, he would almost think that she did that on purpose, to keep Zordon from advising Jason or any of the rest of them. But again: why? Billy could think of no benefit for Dulcea in any of this.

The thought that Dulcea might ultimately betray them made him wary, though he lacked enough support for the idea to even risk bringing it up to any of the others. If Trini had been with them, he might have told her. But Katherine had enough to worry about right now, and he was not entirely sure any of the others would believe him. Perhaps Jason… shaking his head absentmindedly, he decided against it, at least for now.

"Hey, Billy, you okay?" It was Adam that asked, though Billy could see Aisha watching him from Adam's other side, equally concerned.

"I am simply weary of riding," he told them. "Nothing to worry about."

Aisha's expression shifted slightly; she had understood the hidden meaning that crept through in his words. Adam may have missed it, but she did not. Billy did not wish to make himself a burden to the group by showing weakness. But he was growing increasingly certain that if they did not stop soon he would fall asleep in his saddle or, worse, fall off his mount.

"We'll stop soon," Aisha assured him. Under her breath, just loud enough to hear, she added, "I hope."

 

 

Aisha kept a careful eye on Billy for the rest of the ride. Exhaustion was starting to catch up with her, too. She had no idea how Jason and Kimberly could look so alert.

When they emerged from the forest and onto a rocky plain, at first Aisha thought she must be dreaming. Even in the darkness as clouds moved in to block the light of stars and moon, she could see the mountains rising in the distance, dark peaks against the horizon.

Dulcea led the way onward without a word.

The clouds continued to gather until it was nearly too dark to see and the temperature plummeted as they headed out into the open. Frigid winds gusted, chilling them to the bone, and the air began to smell of rain. They had been picking their way upward and into the hills for over an hour when Aisha caught sight of the castle up ahead. It loomed on the edge of a precipice, atop a defensible hill.

"Look," she murmured, wincing at the way her voice seemed to carry in the dark. How long had they been traveling in silence? It must have been a couple of hours, at least.

It soon became apparent that they were heading for the citadel on the hill. Aisha wasn't sure what to expect. Friend or foe? Or something else entirely? There were too many possibilities and she didn't like it one bit. But with the weather getting steadily worse and no other potentially safe place in sight where they might pass the rest of the night, she could see why Dulcea was leading them straight for it. Although she still had to wonder if it would really be "safe".

The first drops of rain began to fall as they rode through the gate, which was suspiciously open, and into the citadel courtyard. Aisha dismounted with the others, squinting through the rain and the buffeting wind to peer up at the looming keep. It looked old and decayed with age, and decidedly uninhabited. And yet the building looked as stable and secure as it could ever have been; she wondered why it had been abandoned in the first place.

She heard Jason ask if they ought to try to bar the gate, for the massive wooden doors were still intact. When Dulcea answered, Aisha felt a chill go down her spine, though it must have only been the wind. "No," the sorceress said, "we are not pursued by any mortal foe. We will take shelter within the keep itself tonight, and I will seal it from within."

The door to the keep was closed and Aisha had her doubts about being able to enter at all, but the door opened easily enough even though the rusted hinges screeched. The horses protested violently at being led into the great, dark building, but at word from Dulcea they became calm and docile once again. Aisha felt another chill, but kept it to herself. Billy was worried, she knew, but it was too late for worries now.

Lightning flashed just before Tommy and Jason got the door shut again. Thunder echoed the boom as the bar fell into place.

For better or worse, they were locked in.

It was dark as pitch inside the keep, so dark Aisha could not see her hand in front of her face. A moment later, sparks flared and Rocky had a torch alight. It wasn't long before they all had torches lit; a good thing, because Aisha had not relished the thought of a night spent in the dark, in close quarters with a bunch of nervous horses.

The first floor of the keep was occupied mainly by a large entrance hall, with stairs heading up and down at the back. It smelled of mold. But there was a roof over their heads and thick walls to keep the storm at bay, so Aisha wasn't complaining.

A quick foray up the stairs and Rocky and Adam reported the second floor to be intact. _At least,_ Aisha thought, _we won't have to sleep with the horses._ But there was still a lot to be done before they could even think about sleeping.

Aisha left Rocky and Adam to take care of their share of the horses, and set to work hauling bedrolls and supplies up to the second floor. It smelled no less damp and moldy than the first floor, and promised an uncomfortable night with its bare stone floors and the howling wind outside, but it was divided into one large room with three smaller adjoining rooms. It was the closest they had come to privacy in a long time.

Selecting one of the rooms, Aisha dropped her armful of supplies in its center and went back downstairs for more, pausing on her way to let Kimberly, Billy, and Katherine know what she had found.

"Three rooms?" Billy asked. "It would be best to devise some mutually acceptable manner of dividing them up, then."

"Simple," Kimberly replied. "Rocky, Adam, and Aisha will take one. You, Jason, and Tommy will take the second. And Kat and I will take the last one."

Aisha was not at all sure that was a good idea. "I think I'll stay with you and Kat."

"Fine," Kimberly agreed. In the flickering torchlight, Kat seemed to have gone pale, but Kimberly was the Queen and there was no arguing with her.

When Aisha had finally finished hauling supplies upstairs, she forced herself away from the promise of her blankets and went downstairs again to hear what the plans were and see if there was anything else she could help with. She was exhausted, but at least helping kept her mind off the unnerving weather and Dulcea's vague and ominous warnings.

Seeing Aisha, the last straggler from upstairs, Dulcea and Jason gathered everyone together.

"I had best explain," Dulcea began. Aisha shifted impatiently, trying to mask her displeasure at not being informed sooner. Ignoring her fidgeting, or else oblivious to it, Dulcea went on, "There are many dangers afoot in Phaedos; as the new moon approaches, the forces of darkness grow more bold."

As if that explained anything.

"Tonight is the night of the dark moon."

Okay, maybe it did explain a few things.

"Those which have until now only pursued may now choose to attack," Dulcea went on. Aisha was reminded of white fog and ghostly figures, enthralling. It hadn't been a new moon night then. "We were fortunate to come upon this place of refuge when we did. I will use my power this night to seal us inside, that none may enter who bear us ill will."

She removed from her neck the crystal pendant where Zordon's spirit was bound, and handed it to Billy. "Guard it well," she murmured, as if in benediction. Billy stammered a protest, but she silenced him. "There is none more worthy than you, Billy. The warding will require all of my focus, and so it falls to you to keep Zordon safe."

He did not look like he quite believed her, but he took the crystal and stepped back to join the rest of them.

"Please stay in this room until I have finished casting the spell," Dulcea said. "When that is done, you may feel free to go anywhere in the keep."

They all assented, watching as Dulcea made her way to the very center of the room and sat on the floor. Her breathing grew deep and slow and, after a long time, she began to speak. The syllables were not of any language that Aisha knew, and they seemed to echo strangely in the confined space. The atmosphere of the room seemed to grow denser and heavier with each word that she spoke.

The horses stirred in fear, snorting and pacing restively. Rocky and Adam went to calm them. Aisha noticed their departure only vaguely; she could not seem to take her eyes off of Dulcea.

Dulcea ignored all of this and continued with her quiet chant. Blue light traced delicate figures, which might have been letters transcribing some long lost language, across the floor and walls. They faded quickly, but the sense of power remained in the air. Aisha knew without being told that the symbols were part of the protection spell and marked the edges of the spell's power. Somehow, she did feel safer knowing that the warding spell was between them and whatever might be lurking outside.

When it was obvious that Dulcea was fully absorbed in maintaining her spell, Jason said, "Let's go upstairs and get some rest. There's nothing else we can do here."

As they headed upstairs, everyone seemed glad at the prospect of getting a little rest and having a roof over their heads. Aisha let out a little sigh of relief. One more day over, at last. One day closer to whatever it was they were searching for. A sword, a destiny… She was _definitely_ ready for some sleep.

Unfortunately, it seemed like she and the other girls had just wrapped themselves in their blankets and laid down to sleep when Kimberly grew restless. Aisha did her best to ignore it for a long time, determined to get some real rest.

"I can't sleep," Kimberly announced finally, sitting up and throwing off her blanket. "I'm going to go have a look around. You coming?"

Aisha smirked and followed as Kimberly headed for the door, pausing to take their still-burning torch out of the sconce on the wall. Sure, she was beyond tired, but she wasn't about to let Kimberly wander off alone. Especially not when she was curious about this place, too.

To Aisha's surprise, Katherine got up and followed them. She had to admit, she was glad to see Kat seeming at least a little bit less afraid of Kimberly… though maybe in this case she was just more afraid of being left alone. Kimberly said nothing of it, but Aisha felt a bit suspicious. She knew that Kat and Kim had been the ones to free her and the others from the ghosts, but she wondered if the experience could really have been enough to dispel the bad blood between them.

Kimberly looked both ways down the hall before creeping out of the room the girls were sharing. Aisha stifled a laugh; she remembered well the days of sneaking out after bedtime and trying to avoid being caught by her elders. This felt very much like that.

When they reached the stairwell, Kimberly headed up. Aisha and Katherine followed, keeping their eyes peeled. The upper levels of the keep were mostly uninteresting. A series of windswept rooms filled with long-decayed furniture and ruined carpets and wall coverings. Obviously they had seen quite a bit of use in the past, but there was nothing to indicate why the castle was no longer in use or explain where the people had gone.

Wind howled through gaps in the walls and uncovered arrow slits, as if trying to fill the ominous silence.

"I can't be the only one that thinks this is weird," Kimberly muttered when they reached the top level and found it in exactly the same state of disrepair as all the rest. "Someone lived here once. Where did they go?"

Kat looked down at her feet and did not answer.

Aisha shrugged. "Maybe they ran out of food or water. This place seems to be in the middle of nowhere. I didn't see a well when we were in the yard. If it was too hard to resupply, maybe they just decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore." But the words sounded hollow, even to her. She wasn't sure how, but she knew that wasn't the case. Something had happened here in the past, and it felt as if the melancholy still clung to the castle walls.

"We're not going to find anything up here," Kimberly decided at last. "Let's go back downstairs."

Aisha followed silently, wondering if Kimberly had a purpose for her wandering that she wasn't ready to share yet. She seemed almost to be looking for something. But what could she possibly be looking for, and why? None of them had ever been here before. They had never even had the slightest idea that a place like this could exist.

But for now she kept her questions to herself. They reached the floor where they were supposed to be sleeping, and Aisha knew if they made too much noise the guys would catch them… and probably insist that they stay shut up in their room for the rest of the night, where it was "safe".

This time, unfortunately, the hall wasn't deserted like it had been when they initially snuck out. Rocky was leaning against the wall, standing guard.

"What are you three up to?" he asked, tilting his head skeptically. "And why weren't you in your room?"

Aisha smiled and resisted the urge to reach over and mess up his hair, just to irritate him that tiny bit more. "Nothing. We're completely innocent. Don't worry about us."

"I always worry when you're involved," he said in his most suspicious tone. "You're really not trying to get in any kind of trouble?"

"I'm the Queen," Kimberly said. "I get to decide what counts as 'trouble.' Do I have to go get my crown?"

As she passed him, Aisha met Rocky's gaze. The somber look in his eyes spoke volumes. She knew he remembered all too clearly what had happened to Adam earlier, and what had happened with the ghosts after that, so she nodded to let him know that she was on the lookout for danger. He still felt guilty about Adam's injury, even though Dulcea had been able to heal it, and Aisha knew it was killing him to let them continue their exploration without him. "We'll be fine," she said when he failed to look convinced. "I promise."

"We're just going to go see what's downstairs. And then we'll be right back up, safe and sound," Kimberly promised.

Rocky's expression darkened. Before he could say anything, Katherine interjected, "If we're not back in half an hour, get the others and come looking for us."

As they headed down the stairs, Aisha nudged Kat conspiratorially. "Nice," she whispered.

Kat smiled self-consciously. "I try."

"I knew there was something I liked about you," Kimberly quipped without looking back.

"Speaking of that…"

Kimberly halted and turned to meet Aisha eye-to-eye. "Look, I don't want to talk about Tommy right now. Maybe not ever. But what happened wasn't Kat's fault, and I'm not stupid enough or selfish enough to hold her responsible for it."

"All right," Aisha murmured. She did not miss the angry tears in Kimberly's eyes, though she knew better than to mention them. "I just wanted to make sure that you're really okay with… this." It sounded awful even as she said it. Kat pretended not to notice.

"I'm the Queen," Kimberly said. It seemed to Aisha that she'd been saying that a lot lately, as if she needed to remind herself. "If I wanted to, I could have had an entire room to myself," she pointed out. It seemed that Kat hadn't considered that. Aisha certainly hadn't.

"Besides," Kimberly went on, heading downward again, "who wants to get stuck sharing a room with all those men?"

Shaking her head, Aisha followed while Kat brought up the rear. The large room on the ground floor looked much as it had when they left it a few hours ago. The horses were quiet and still, most likely sleeping. Dulcea still sat exactly where she had been before, and everything else was still dark. The air was cold enough that Aisha could see her breath.

"Well," Aisha observed, "nothing new here."

"No," Kimberly said. "But there's something I wanted to check."

Aisha's brow furrowed, but she followed Kimberly around behind the staircase. "What exactly are you looking for?" she asked, dutifully holding the torch up so Kimberly could see better.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "It's just a hunch." She ran a hand over the stones of the wall, stones that glistened as if slick with moisture. Her mouth quirked into a frown. "I was so sure…"

"Kim?"

She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. When she opened her eyes again, Aisha almost thought she saw fire there, but it had to just be the reflection of the torch.

"No," Kimberly said. "It's here."

She pressed hard on one of the stones and, with a deep grinding sound, part of the wall swung away to reveal a staircase heading down.

"How did you know that was there?" Aisha asked after a speechless moment.

Kimberly shook her head and did not answer. She took the torch from Aisha and started down the stairs.

"What in the world is down there?" Aisha demanded.

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out!"

Aisha hesitated a moment longer, hating the idea of descending into that dark stairway, then hurried to follow. She might not like the idea of going down there, but she wasn't about to let Kimberly go alone. Katherine waited until they were almost out of sight before rushing after, nearly running into Aisha in her hurry. Aisha couldn't blame her. Something about this passage was really disconcerting.

She was half expecting a dungeon when they finally reached the bottom, but there was only a large wooden door. It was in bad shape, damp and worm-eaten, and swung out of the way with only a gentle push. Fearless, Kimberly headed down the hall that it revealed. Aisha and Kat had little choice but to follow, being unwilling to head back up the stairs in the dark by themselves.

After a short distance the hall stopped at another door, which opened much like the first to reveal a large, high-ceilinged room. As Kimberly entered and her torch illuminated the large space, Aisha felt a shiver go down her spine. The room was filled with life-size human statues, each one entirely unique. Some were huddled together, others stood apart. They were made of stone, yet everything down to the smallest hair was portrayed with the greatest of precision. Aisha knew of no sculptor skilled enough to have created artworks such as these.

Kimberly's brow furrowed as she wandered among the sculptures. Turning to Aisha, she asked, "Does something seem weird about these statues to you?"

Aisha definitely felt a bit unnerved, but she had assumed it was from being in such a closed off room below ground. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

Katherine, who had refused to come more than a few feet from the door, said, "I don't think they're statues."

Both Kimberly and Aisha looked to her, and she seemed to regret having spoken at all. "What do you mean?" Aisha prodded.

"I mean… look at them," Kat explained. "They're all different. Their clothes, their hair, their faces, their expressions... It would take a lifetime to create so many unique statues, and I'm not sure anyone could create that level of detail in stone." As if summoning all her courage, she walked over to the closest statue and ran a hand gently over it. "If you wanted to, you could count each strand of this woman's hair. You can practically feel the fabric her shirt is made out of. How do you think the sculptor did that?"

Kimberly caught on an instant before Aisha did. "Are you saying that you think these were real people who somehow were turned into stone?" Her eyes were wide with disbelief, but the proof was all around them.

"I don't know," Katherine said. "It's just a guess. But I can't think of any other explanation."

"We need to ask Dulcea about this," Aisha breathed. She wasn't sure why she was so certain that Dulcea had the answer, but she was. "Whatever went on here, we deserve to know about it. What if this place turns out to be another trap like that…" She trailed off, not wanting to bring up bad memories for her companions.

"It's a little late for that," Kimberly replied dryly. "We're sealed in for the night, remember?"

"Yeah," Aisha muttered begrudgingly. "But suddenly I feel a lot less safe than I did earlier."


	32. From Bad to Worse

Kimberly sighed. She knew she should feel more alarmed by the discovery of the impossibly lifelike statues than she did, but for the moment she was willing to chalk it up to exhaustion. It seemed like every moment had been a struggle lately. Even when there had been a chance to rest, she hadn't been able to sleep. Instead, she'd been plagued... first by thoughts of Tommy's betrayal, and then by the strange sensation that there was something else she should be doing.

It reminded her of the way she'd felt that first night after the wedding, when she simply _knew_ what she needed to do. Only this time there was no sense of urgency to it. This time it was as if the call was being shouted at her from somewhere far away, shrouded in fog.

Her head ached just thinking about it.

But something had pushed her. She'd been drawn to explore the ruined castle until she found this hidden underground room, and then the sensation had finally faded into the background. But she still didn't understand what it meant, and there was no word from Bryndis or any of her other ancestors to point her in the right direction. And on top of all that she sensed that Aisha and Katherine were growing impatient with her, but she had no idea how to explain it to them.

"Kimberly, are you all right?" Aisha was suddenly beside her, resting a gentle hand on her arm, ready to support her if needed.

"Yeah," she murmured distantly. "I just feel like there's something I need to do. Like I found this place for a reason."

"We're all tired," Aisha went on. She sounded hopeful. "Maybe some sleep will help clear things up."

"Maybe," Kimberly said, though she did not really agree.

Aisha turned back toward the stairs. Katherine followed. Kimberly did not.

"Kim, come on. Let's go."

She shook her head. "I came down here for a reason. I want to know what that reason was." She also didn't much feel like climbing back up all those stairs.

"There will be time for that later," Aisha assured her.

"I'm not so sure about that," Kimberly muttered. Knowing that her friends were not going to give her the time she wanted – and that they were probably right about her needing rest – she moved recklessly forward among the statues. There wasn't time for Aisha or Kat to stop her, but she regretted her decision almost immediately. They were even eerier close up; she could see why Kat thought they might once have been real people. Their faces and expressions were all unique, and the level of detail in their hair and clothing was extraordinary.

And yet to Kimberly's eyes they all had one thing in common: they all looked frightened.

She wondered what would happen if she tried to use magic on them, but the very thought of magic made her yearn for her bed. She barely had the energy left to stand, much less work magic. And yet once the idea had occurred to her, she couldn't let it go.

That had to be it. Her magic must have wanted her to find this. She didn't know why. She didn't know if it mattered why. The strange feeling inside her wouldn't go away until she did what it wanted. Experience had taught her that much, at least.

"I don't know what you're thinking," Aisha said, sounding exasperated, "but I really think you should rest first."

Kimberly shook her head. "I can't. Why do you think I couldn't sleep in the first place? We're all exhausted, and we finally have a decent place to take shelter for the night..."

"Whatever it is that's compelling you to do this really ought to recognize that you're only human. You have to rest and eat just like everyone else."

"It's not something that's compelling me. It's _me_. It's part of me. I can't turn it off or make it be quiet. I don't know how to control it," Kimberly said. She continued, horrified but unable to stop the fears from spilling out of her. "Everything's gone all wrong with my magic lately. It tells me things I don't understand. It won't let me rest. It won't even work at all half the time, let alone work _right_. And now it wants me here and I have no idea why and..."

"Kimberly..."

She did not turn to look, but heard the sound of Aisha approaching again and of Katherine racing back up the stairs. She felt a twinge of guilt for having upset Katherine again, when she'd been trying so hard not to.

She didn't want to be the kind of Queen that people feared.

"Whatever's going on, it's going to be okay," Aisha soothed.

Kimberly shook her off, stumbling deeper into the cluster of statues. Dust swirled in the air around her, moving like fog. There was a kind of opening at the middle of the group, she could see now, and she headed for it. Aisha did not follow, but remained just beyond the farthest of the statues. Her torch flickered and grew fainter, as if it might burn out. "Did you see something?" she asked.

"Maybe."

"Do you want me to –"

"No, stay back there. I'm not sure what's going to happen."

She kept walking toward the center of the statues, but her legs had begun to feel like lead weights. She began to feel a bit dizzy, and hoped it was just from the close atmosphere of this basement.

Something sparked when she reached her goal, a strange sensation deep within her, like a flame burning in her chest. It reminded her of the feeling her magic always gave her, but now she was beginning to realize that it was not the same. It was more like the burning of that fiery creature she had dragged up from the earth... but even that beast's fury had subsided lately as she grew more accustomed to suppressing it. She exhaled sharply and clasped a hand over her chest, as if that could somehow ease the sensation inside. _If only I knew more about this magic stuff… but it seems like no matter how much I learn, it's never enough, _she thought in despair.

She wondered... maybe if Katherine was right, if these were really people that had been transformed into statues by some sort of magic, maybe she could use _her_ magic to reach them. Maybe she could even set them free.

As soon as the thought occurred to her, she knew she had to try.

_I don't know if I can do this,_ she thought. But she dug deep, reaching into the earth beneath her feet for energy and magic.

It felt like she was trying to move a solid brick wall.

Struggling to focus, she rested her hands on the arm of one of the stone people and tried again.

Nothing.

She was just too exhausted. She considered giving up and going upstairs - even if she had to get Aisha to carry her - to try and get some sleep while she still could. But it seemed like it would take more effort than it was worth. Exhaustion seemed to weigh her down, threatening to push her down to the floor.

She fought against it, finding the idea of passing out on the floor ridiculous. But the harder she tried to fight, the more she realized that her struggles were in vain... she simply didn't have the energy left to fight.

From somewhere in the darkness where Aisha's torch light didn't reach, she thought she heard a man's laugh, a deep voice she did not recognize. But when she tried to turn and see where the sound had come from, her body would not obey her... and she realized with horror that, like the unfortunate souls arrayed around her, she was rooted to the floor. She was turning to stone.

 

 

Tommy spent a long time trying to sleep, but with the wind howling just beyond the castle walls and the rain pounding against the stones, rest evaded him. He had just closed his eyes and managed to fall asleep when suddenly Katherine burst into the room he was sharing with Jason and Billy. Rocky was supposed to be standing guard in the hall outside, but he was hot on her heels.

"Kat? What's wrong?" Jason asked, instantly alert. Tommy struggled to follow suit.

"It's Kimberly," Kat managed to say. She was breathing hard, as if she'd just run quite a distance. "Something's wrong."

As soon as Katherine mentioned Kimberly's name, Tommy was immediately wide awake. "What is it?" he demanded.

Kat shook her head. "I don't know. Just... hurry!"

Tommy threw off his blanket and was on his feet a moment later. Judging by Kat's tone, there wasn't time to worry about armor, but he wasn't leaving his weapons behind. He didn't bother with his sword belt, merely grabbed the blade and raced after Kat.

He'd expected to head upward into the keep, but to his surprise Kat led them downstairs. Somehow he hadn't even noticed the doorway that led downward earlier. He glanced back at Dulcea once before following Kat down, but the sorceress's focus did not waver from her task for a moment. Shrugging off her indifference, he followed Kat. Jason and Rocky were right behind him.

The passageway leading down into the basement was eerie, but at the bottom Tommy could see a faintly flickering light, as if from a torch. When he and the others reached the bottom they could see that the light came from Aisha's torch, which lay on the floor, but Aisha herself was nowhere to be seen.

"Over here!" she shouted from somewhere deeper in the chamber.

For a moment all Tommy could do was stare; the room was filled with statues. Of people. It was the last thing he'd expected to find down here.

A moment later, Aisha shouted again, "Get your butts over here, right now!"

Tommy did his best to follow the sound of her voice, while Jason and Rocky fanned out on either side of him. Kat hung back, clearly frightened by what was going on, though she was not willing to flee, either.

Making his way between the statues, Tommy was struck by how realistic they were. It almost seemed as if they might come alive at any moment. He pushed the uneasy feeling aside, forcing himself to focus on what was most important. And right now what was most important was Kimberly.

Aisha was with her at the very center of the statues, and Tommy nearly dropped his sword at the sight of her. From the waist up, she looked the same as always, but from the waist down she had turned to stone. And it was spreading, creeping up her body. In only a few more moments, he knew it would engulf her completely.

"Kimberly!"

She looked his way then, her expression a mix of terror and anger. "Tommy," she said after a tense moment. He'd been afraid she might be too stubborn to speak to him, even now. "I'm sorry. I don't think I have very much time left."

"This is magic," he said, rushing up to her, forgetting all about her anger. "It has to be. You can..." He wasn't actually sure what she could do to get out of this predicament. Kimberly knew only a little about magic, and he knew even less than she did. Maybe if they got Dulcea... but there was no time to try and rouse the sorceress, and even if they did manage to wake her it might only put them in the path of more danger. "Kim, you've got to fight it!"

"I can't!" she protested. Frightened tears spilled from her eyes. Terror gripped him, watching the stone reached her neck. "I don't know how... and I'm just so _tired_."

He threw his sword away to cup her face in his hands, noting with horror the way the stone seemed to spread to him, creeping across his hands and down his arms... "Yes, you can. I know you can. You are one of the strongest people I've ever met, Kimberly."

She tried to shake her head, but couldn't. The stone held her fast, and was quickly spreading over her face. "I can't," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"No," he murmured. "Kim, no. You can't give up!" _What am I going to do without you?_

Despair threatened to swallow him whole. He knew he had only a few seconds left to figure out a way to save her before it would be too late. Even knowing that, he couldn't think of anything. All he could think was to berate himself for never learning more about magic… and how much he loved her and wanted her to be safe.

Could it be that easy?

From what she had told him, he knew that somehow _he_ was the key to her magic. Somehow, her power was supposed to be his power, _their power_, but they had not managed to figure out exactly what that meant or how to use that power.

But now he had nothing left to lose. As their last seconds slipped away, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, and felt the stone consume them both.

_I love you,_ he thought, _and if you don't have the strength left to fight this, then take mine... because I can't live without you._

Dimly, he heard Aisha's horrified gasp. And then the world around him seemed to fade away until he was all alone in a very dark place. He felt exhausted, as if all the energy had left him. As if he really had been able to give his strength to Kimberly.

It hadn't been enough.

But a moment later, he felt it. A warmth spread over him like summer sunshine, sliding over his skin, separating him from the darkness. Protecting him. Freeing him.

The stone around him gave an audible _crack_ and broke away, and when he opened his eyes he saw that Kimberly was free, too. She pulled away from him, her eyes wide and shining with tears, and for a moment he thought she was going to be angry that he'd had the audacity to kiss her in their last moments together... but the next thing he knew she had flung herself into his arms, or he had pulled her to him. She sagged into him and buried her face against his chest.

Exhausted, all he could do was hold her.

 

 

Jason was waiting at dawn when Dulcea released her shielding spell. Watching her, he thought he finally understood how she had been so completely oblivious to what had happened in the night. It was as if he could see her spirit returning to her body, shining strands of bluish light that might not have ever actually been there, as if in the casting of her spell she had stepped outside of her body and formed the shield with her very being.

While he was mulling over what that might truly entail, she opened her eyes and saw him. "Jason?"

"We had a bit of a problem while you were busy last night," he began.

She gave a weary nod. "Tell me," she said.

"I think it would be better if I showed you."

She nodded and rose, following Jason as he grabbed the torch he'd left already lit nearby and led the way into the basement. She paused at the bottom of the stairs when the statues came into view.

"It is worse than I thought," she murmured. "This is Zedd's doing."

Somehow Jason didn't feel much better having his suspicions confirmed. "Kimberly snuck out of her room and came down here last night," he explained. "For some reason Kat and Aisha thought it was a good idea, so they came with her."

Dulcea was silent, listening, but she moved forward to walk among the statues, much as Kimberly must have done in the night.

"She turned to stone," he went on, trying not to let his voice betray how much that bothered him. They'd found her in the center, turning to stone just like the statues - or people - around her. Thanks to Kat, they'd reached her in time and Tommy had been able to save her. He'd never felt so helpless in his entire life as he had watching them last night. "Those aren't really statues, are they?"

When Dulcea turned to look at him, her expression was one of infinite sadness and he knew before she spoke that he'd guessed right. "No. They are the people who built this castle, and who lived here until Zedd seized power. I had thought them slain in the carnage that followed Zedd's rise to power, but now I see that I was wrong. Their fate was far worse than death." Her hands had clenched into fists.

Jason had the uncomfortable feeling that Dulcea _knew_ some of these people. He hesitated before asking, because he knew it might be painful for her, but his curiosity was too strong. She acted as if they were still alive in spite of the magic that had turned them to stone. The thought was horrifying, but he had to know. "Dulcea, if they're not dead, are they _aware_? Or are they just..."

"I am... not sure." She rested a hand on the nearest of the statues and closed her eyes, deep in concentration.

Faint blue light ghosted over the statue's surface. Almost as soon as she set her hand upon it, the stone started to spread from the statue, creeping up her hand just as it had overtaken Kimberly and Tommy. Dulcea recoiled before it could spread far and shook her hand, the stone shell crumbling away. "That is a powerful magic," she murmured. "I do not think that even I have the strength to break the spell on these poor people." She looked at him then, her brow furrowing. "You are still troubled."

"It didn't affect me or Kat or Aisha or Rocky. Only Kimberly. And Tommy, when he touched her."

The sorceress's expression darkened. "A trap, then. Laid for her, and me."

"Yeah," Jason agreed, seeing no reason not to, "but _why_? I understand targeting you. But why Kimberly?" If anything, he'd thought Zedd would be targeting him, as the heir to the Sword of Power. But it was getting harder to ignore the fact that - all logic to the contrary - Kimberly seemed to be Zedd's real target. It made no sense, no matter how he considered it.

"I do not know," Dulcea admitted.

"So how do we break the news to her?"

"You mean to tell her?"

Jason frowned. "You don't?"

The sorceress seemed to think it over for a moment. "If you tell her, what will that accomplish?" she asked.

He hadn't thought of it that way. It probably wouldn't do any good to tell Kimberly of his suspicions. It certainly wouldn't stop Zedd from targeting her. "If she knows, she can watch out for the next attack," he pointed out, but even as he said it he had to wonder if it would be worth putting even more pressure on Kimberly. She had reached her breaking point. He wasn't cruel enough to consider pushing her past it just yet, but asking her to take extra measures to protect herself might do just that.

"You think it would be better to not tell her at all," he muttered grudgingly. "I think we should tell her. Maybe not today, but soon. She deserves to know."

The look on Dulcea's face told him that she disagreed, but she said nothing more on the subject. She merely turned and made her way out of the basement, trusting to him to follow or not as he liked. Frowning, Jason followed her. He needed a plan, and he needed it soon. Kimberly was not going to be in any shape to travel today, if last night was anything to go by, but he had a feeling Dulcea would push them to move on as soon as everyone was awake.

On some level he understood her sense of urgency. It was pretty obvious now that Zedd was on to them. If they stayed here, they were a sitting target; on the road they would presumably be that much more difficult to track or predict. But here they had shelter from the elements and could hide from any passing enemies. It was the closest thing to "safe" he'd felt in a long time.

Before Dulcea could start up the stairs to where his companions were still resting, he called out, "Dulcea, wait."

She looked back at him, her expression neutral. "Yes, Jason?"

"What's our next move?" he asked.

"Is that not for _you _to decide?" she countered.

He struggled to come up with a fitting response. He had known all this time that his friends considered him the leader on this expedition, but for the most part Dulcea had done all the leading up until now. She was the one that knew where they were going and what they were looking for, after all. Jason was kind of surprised to suddenly be thrown back into command.

"You were expecting a different answer?" she asked, smiling faintly.

He gave a cautious nod.

"Time is of the essence," she warned him. "But you and your companions have suffered enough, I think. The land has altered much since I was last here. There may not be another place to shelter after this. So I will leave it to your judgment to decide whether to stay and recover here or to press onward."

"If we stay," he asked, "can you defend us here?"

"I can try," was her serene response.

Somehow, Jason didn't feel very comforted.

He watched Dulcea depart, but remained alone on the main floor of the castle, deep in thought. The horses milled around him, seemingly perfectly happy despite having spent the night shut up in a strange building without food or water. He envied them a bit. He could have done without these extra worries and responsibilities.

Since it was early yet, Jason lingered for a while. The horses' presence seemed somehow soothing to him. It wasn't difficult to convince himself to wait a while before waking the rest of the group and deciding on a course of action. It took him longer than he would have liked to admit to realize that he wasn't as alone as he had thought. In the dim light she was almost invisible among the horses, but Katherine was there.

"You heard all that, huh?" he murmured.

She nodded.

"What do you think?"

She looked panicked, as if she had not thought he should ask her opinion. "You can talk to me, you know," he told her. "I don't bite. And sometimes it helps to hear what other people think." Despite his reassurances, she remained silent for a long time.

Finally: "I don't know what you should do," she said quietly. "But from what I heard… It sounds like we're in a terrible position. No matter what we choose, we lose."

She was not wrong. Jason fell silent, no more certain of his decision than he had been a few moments ago.

Kat shifted self-consciously. Something in her expression, pensive and scared, reminded him of that late night beside the fire, when she had kept watch with him after the ghosts attacked. That night, Kat had shared her fears with him. She'd told him she was afraid that she'd only come along on this journey to hurt Kim and Tommy. Jason had thought she was wrong then, now he knew for sure she'd been wrong. "She's alive now because of you, you know," he pointed out.

Katherine's brow furrowed for a moment, her expression slowly changing from confusion to something he couldn't quite interpret.

"Kimberly, I mean," he explained. "If you hadn't come to get Tommy, she might have been turned to stone forever."

"I..." she trailed off. "I was scared. I knew something was wrong... I didn't know what, but I knew I had to warn someone. I didn't think I was doing anything heroic."

"We never would have known something was wrong without you."

She nodded, but he did not think she quite believed him. Someday, he hoped she would realize that she wasn't as weak and useless as she thought she was. But she would have to see that for herself. Nothing he could say to her would make her understand that there was more to being a hero than putting yourself between your friends and danger. Like making the right decisions when the answers were anything but clear.

 

 

Kimberly awoke grudgingly, feeling like she was fighting against a strong current. She was wrapped up in blankets, in what must be an interior room of the castle, because it was still dark save for the flickering light of a torch that had nearly burned out. It was tempting just to go back to sleep, because it was dark and warm around her and she was so very comfortable, but something told her she ought to wake up. It took her a while to figure out what that was. But when she realized it, she shot wide awake.

She wasn't alone.

The events of the evening came rushing back to her all at once.

She pushed away, hard. Tommy grunted and came blearily awake while she worked at untangling herself from him. She didn't go far. It would've been too much effort to actually get up, but she wasn't sure being pressed up against him like that was a good idea.

She wasn't sure what to think. She was still angry with him for not being honest with her about what had happened with Kat... but she owed him her life. He'd saved her, after she'd done nothing but push him away. He'd loved her enough to put himself at risk of sharing her fate, if the alternative was living without her. And then he'd brought her back here and held her while she slept off the worst of her exhaustion.

It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. As much as she wanted to hate him for hiding the truth from her for so long... she just couldn't hate him now. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to snuggle up next to him again and go back to sleep.

"Kim," he murmured, staring at her with wide, concerned eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Like I just got trampled by about a dozen horses," she groaned.

Tommy did not respond. When she opened her eyes again he was just staring at her. "What?" She propped herself up to look at him. "Tommy, what happened... how bad was it?"

"You turned to stone, Kim. And so did I."

"That was a stupid risk you took," she grumbled.

"I couldn't just stand there and do nothing," he pointed out.

She frowned. "How did you know what was going on, anyway?" she asked, though she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. He'd turned up at exactly the right time to save her. She was alive now because of it, but it made her wonder.

"Kat came and got me."

She'd been afraid he would say that he'd simply sensed that something was terribly wrong. It was almost a relief to hear that Kat had been the one to bring him. And it was nice to know she hadn't been wrong in thinking she could count on Kat.

They lapsed into silence. Finally, Tommy said, "I guess you're still mad at me, huh?"

"I'm not... I'm not _mad_ at you," she decided. Seeing his look of confusion, she explained, "I _was_. Now I'm not sure how I feel."

"I know it's too late," he said, "but I'm sorry. I should have told you the truth about what happened."

She couldn't look at him. It was too little, and far too late, but at the same time she wanted to forgive him. She still loved him. She still wanted to share her life with him. She was just a little less sure about how far she could trust him.

"I can't blame Kat for not telling me what happened," she said at last. "She barely knew me. I was her Princess, her _Queen_. And she was just some person that worked in my archives. I didn't even know her name. She couldn't have just come to me and told me. I'd never have believed her, even if she had!" She paused for a moment, almost surprised to find herself defending Katherine so vehemently. "But _you_... you have no excuse. You should have told me!" She just barely managed to keep from shouting. Even though she didn't say it, she hoped he heard the question she really wanted to ask: _Why weren't you honest with me?_

"I know."

For a moment the blunt response took her aback.

He chuckled quietly. "It's true. I should have told you. But I was so afraid of screwing things up and losing you that I decided it would be better to keep my stupid mouth shut."

It was ridiculous, but she almost sympathized. He hadn't wanted to mess things up… and she just wanted things to go back to the way they had been.

She did not have much more time to think about it. While she was still trying to come up with a response, someone rapped a warning on the wall. Aisha entered a moment later, doing her best to hide a sly look. Kimberly saw right through her and tried not to roll her eyes too obviously.

"Jason wants us all downstairs for a meeting soon. But if you two are still resting, I'll tell him you'll talk to him later," Aisha said. Her tone was perfectly formal, but her eyes told a different story.

Kimberly tried with limited success to untangle herself from Tommy and the blankets. "We're fine." She twisted around to glare at Tommy, who was not helping but rather watching her with an amused expression on his face. "Are you going to help, or just watch?"

For a horrified moment she was afraid he would try to kiss her. _Don't push your luck, Tommy,_ she thought, _I am _so _not ready for that right now._ But then the moment was gone. Tommy chuckled quietly and helped her with the blankets like a perfect gentleman. He even helped her get up from the floor. Her legs were so weak she could hardly stand, but she gripped Tommy's arm and somehow managed not to fall over. Standing made her head hurt, but she ignored the pain. "Let's go."

Aisha made no move to help her, choosing to lead the way instead. But the half-amused look on her face told Kimberly that she had noticed what was going on. _Yeah, laugh it up, 'Sha, _Kimberly thought. _He's my husband, I can use him as a crutch if I want to._

Luckily they had to go down the stairs to meet with Jason and the others, instead of up. She would never have made it if they'd had to go up. As they finally made it to the bottom of the stairs, she was glad Tommy had enough sense not to comment on her obvious weakness. He moved at her pace, supporting her without being overbearing.

Everyone's eyes were on them as they entered the common room. Kimberly met each one with a glare. There were no windows on the ground floor, so the room was lit with torches. The horses set shadows to looming everywhere, dark shapes flickering on the walls and obscuring her friends' faces. Even though she stayed far away from it, Kimberly was acutely aware of the dark hole to one side: the doorway that led down into the castle's basement, where she had so nearly met her demise.

Jason nodded when he saw them. "Now that we're all here, we have a choice to make," he began. "We learned the hard way last night that this place may be a temporary shelter, but it isn't safe. Dulcea has warned me that there may not be anything like 'safety' awaiting us. Zedd rules Phaedos with powerful magic, and he knows we're here. He probably knows why we're here. And he's trying to stop us. Last night was just one attempt. There will probably be more to follow."

Kimberly found that, oddly, she had nothing to say.

"The choice has to be made: do we run, or do we stay?" Jason concluded. "And I think it's in our best interest to stay put for now. If nothing else, this castle is more or less defensible. We've been pushing hard. We could all use a break." By which he of course meant Kimberly needed a break. And he wasn't wrong about that.

"No," Kimberly surprised everyone, including herself, by saying. "No. We cannot stay here. We have to keep moving."

Jason's brow furrowed. He was preparing for an objection, she knew. So she headed him off. "I won't tell you I'm not exhausted, or that what happened yesterday didn't scare me. I'm terrified. But I know that we won't gain anything from staying here, and I promise you that I'm strong enough to sit a horse and ride."

"Kim," Jason said gently, when no one else would speak, "you need to rest. What happened was –"

"I will not spend another night in this castle," she spat out in her most domineering tone. She was shaking. "We may be far from home, but I am still your Queen."

Jason seemed oddly willing to accept an order from her. Maybe he hadn't been as sure about his decision as he'd sounded. "As you wish."

"Come on then," Aisha said into the silence. "You heard the Queen. Let's get everything packed up here." She ushered the rest of the company upstairs before they had a chance to interrogate Kimberly. Jason followed after casting a glance back at Kimberly.

"Go," Kimberly said to Tommy. He was watching the others, obviously torn. "I'll be fine. I want to talk to Dulcea. Alone." Worry was written all over his face when he looked at her. "I'm not climbing back up those stairs. Go."

He went, if reluctantly.

Kimberly was surprised and a little pleased to see that she could stand without Tommy's help. Dulcea waited in silence, watching her carefully. Kimberly waited, thinking that Dulcea would have something to say, but the sorceress kept her mouth shut. For a long time the only sounds were those of the horses.

"I'm not going to break," she said at last. "You've got them all convinced that I'm going to, but I'm not."

Dulcea made no response.

"You know what happened," she said. It was not a question.

"Yes," Dulcea admitted. "I know what happened."

Kimberly frowned. They could be talking about last night, or they could be talking about Tommy and Kat. She chose to talk about last night. Dwelling on Tommy and Kat any longer would just drive her mad. "Care to enlighten me? Because I know what happened, but not _what_ happened," she floundered. Frustrated, she demanded, "Why did I turn to stone?"

Dulcea clearly did not want to tell her anything, and that only served to make her more frustrated. "Tell me," she insisted. "Don't I deserve that much? I almost died!"

"I did not realize the full extent of Zedd's power," Dulcea told her. "I had thought the people of Phaedos killed in the great battle… But they were not killed, I see that now."

Kimberly felt sick. "So Kat was right. Those aren't statues. They're people."

"And Zedd used them to set a trap for you," Dulcea confirmed.

For a moment Kimberly was too stunned to respond. Then: "Me?" It didn't make any sense. She thought about it a little longer and it still didn't make any sense. "Are you sure it wasn't a trap set for you? How in the world would this Zedd guy even know who I am?"

"How did Rita Repulsa know who you were?"

"She…" Kimberly did not really know. "Tommy said she used a magic pool to see things that were far away." She paused. "Are you saying Zedd's been _spying on me_? How can you possibly know that?"

Dulcea looked her in the eyes. "Every person that can use magic uses it in a slightly different way, even if they have the same teacher. Think of it like a signature. The stone spell that affected the people in the basement… it had no effect on me until I mimicked your signature."

"I," Kimberly began, feeling suddenly lightheaded. The flickering light from the torches made her dizzy, threatening to overwhelm her. Fear and doubt ate at her. Everything that had been going wrong with her magic lately… had that been Zedd's doing, too? "I need to sit down."

She stumbled backward, off balance, and the next thing she knew the floor was rushing up to meet her.


	33. When Darkness Falls

From his citadel within the fastness of deepest Phaedos, Lord Zedd watched his enemies through the magic of his scrying pool. He watched, and smiled a cruel smile.

"Enjoying your curse, Dulcea?" he asked aloud, knowing that the sorceress could not hear him. She could sense him watching her, however, of that he had no doubt. He also knew that she could not help but feel the effects of the millennium-old curse, which was the end result of their last clash. "It must pain you so to watch your band of heroes begin to mistrust you, one by one, knowing that sooner or later they will lose their faith and turn on you. Knowing you can say nothing to stop it…"

Through the scrying pool's magic, he could see the threads of cursed magic that bound her, thin and fine as spider's silk, but shining with power. The strands had grown loose in recent centuries as she ventured far abroad and he turned his gaze elsewhere. Watching her now, he gave a mental tug, pulling the strings tight around her again.

She would feel that, of a certainty. It pleased Zedd to no end to watch her struggle in vain against it.

That curse had been a particularly clever bit of work, he thought. As wise as she pretended to be, she hadn't even realized he was cursing her until it was too late. It had seemed such a minor thing to her at first that she had laughed at him for it… until she realized that she was doomed to speak in half-truths and riddles, unless she was completely certain she spoke the truth, until he released her from the spell or died. And since he was as immortal as she was, he would have to release her or she would have to kill him.

It was the least he could do, to repay her in kind after the curse she had placed upon him had permanently destroyed his good looks.

And now she was drawing nearer and nearer, and dragging a new troupe of would-be heroes along with her. Zedd could hardly stand the anticipation. He cared nothing for the young man that Dulcea claimed was Heir to the Sword of Power. Jason Scott might be brave and strong as far as mortals went, but he was no threat to one such as Zedd. Nor were any of the other knights in Dulcea's little entourage.

No, it was the mortal queen and sorceress, Kimberly, that had caught Zedd's attention. She lacked all but the most rudimentary training in the magic arts, but the raw power she possessed was like nothing Zedd had known in his thousands of years of life. He lusted for that power; one way or another, he would make it – and her – his own. It did not hurt that she was as beautiful as she was powerful, but the best part was that she had no idea at all how powerful she really was.

That would make her that much easier to conquer and control. It almost made up for the fact that she had thus far managed to escape from every trap that he laid for her, even the shades of the Last Crusade.

He had to laugh as he imagined turning her against Dulcea and her friends, even her own husband. Perhaps he would convince her to kill the husband with her own hand, so that she could marry him instead.

He liked that idea very much indeed.

The image in the scrying pool changed, showing him Kimberly as she lay unconscious in her husband's arms. Her beauty was marred by exhaustion and fear, a potent combination that told him she would soon reach her breaking point. And then…

"Yes," Zedd murmured aloud. "I think I'll have you as my wife. And when we're married, I'll make you immortal, too…"

 

 

Kimberly didn't realize she had fainted until she opened her eyes and found Tommy and Dulcea staring down at her. Tommy was holding her, but the ache in her head suggested that she'd hit the ground hard. It took her a few moments to realize that there was sky behind him, rather than the castle's moldy stone ceiling. She smelled a fire, and something cooking, but could not see it. When had they brought her outside?

"What happened?" she asked, sitting up.

Tommy shot Dulcea an angry look. Before the sorceress could answer, Aisha brought over a bowl of breakfast and a mug of hot tea, giving them to Kimberly along with a glare at Tommy and Dulcea. It was nothing fancy, but it was food. Kimberly set aside her curiosity for the moment and ate.

While she was preoccupied, Dulcea slipped away. She watched the sorceress approach Jason and converse with him, though they were too far away for her to hear what they were saying. She felt a twinge of irritation. Since when had Jason become the leader of this expedition? With a grimace, she remembered how he had tried to make them stay longer in this horrible castle.

"Come on," Aisha teased. "My cooking isn't that bad."

"It's not that," Kimberly murmured. Tommy half looked like he expected the problem to be him. "It's Dulcea. I feel like she's hiding something from me." It did not escape her notice that the sorceress had already reclaimed Zordon's crystal. She would have much preferred to ask him what was going on.

Tommy glanced at Dulcea. "You think?"

Kimberly really did not feel like arguing with him. "When I fainted, she was telling me that what happened back there, with the stone..." The very thought of it made her shiver. "It was a trap. For me." It occurred to her that maybe Dulcea hadn't planned on letting her know.

Fear came rushing back, as strong as before. At least this time she was seated firmly on the ground. And with breakfast in her belly and Tommy's arm to support her, she felt far less faint than before.

"But... why you?" Aisha asked. "If that Zedd guy set a trap, wouldn't it be for Jason?"

"Yeah, you'd think," Kimberly muttered.

Tommy was less skeptical. "But Kim..." He paused uncertainly. She knew what he was going to say almost before he said it. "Rita was after you, too. Her plan was never about me. It was never about your kingdom. It was about _you_." He did not need to remind her that they had unknowingly delivered her right into Rita's hands, or that they had nearly been killed in the ensuing battle. She remembered all too clearly.

"What if Zedd wants whatever Rita wanted?" he concluded.

"But why? I'm nothing special," she protested, knowing it was a feeble lie, wishing it were true. But girls that were nothing special did not grow up to be queens, and they certainly didn't have magic in their blood.

"And besides," Aisha pointed out ,"if he wanted her alive, why try to kill her?"

_But the stone _didn't _kill me,_ she thought, horrified. _Even when it swallowed me whole, I was still alive._ What if he'd meant to turn her to stone so he could collect her at his leisure? She shivered again, and did not protest when Tommy held her closer. She felt somehow safer with him near. It was only thanks to his intervention that she was not still in that basement, petrified like all the others.

"The stone didn't kill her," he murmured. "I don't think it killed any of them. I think they're just... frozen."

Kimberly let her head droop. The more she thought about it, the worse it seemed to become. "That's why I want to talk to Dulcea," she said. She felt sick inside, but she knew what she had to do. "I want to find a way to free them."

 

 

It was with a deep sense of apprehension that Katherine followed Kimberly and the others into the castle again and down into the hidden basement. All they had asked her to do was hold a torch. She could do that much. But she felt miserably nervous all the same.

As they descended into the statue room, she stuck close to Jason and Billy. Billy might not be the most accomplished fighter, or a fighter at all, really, but he was her oldest friend and that counted for something. And she trusted Jason not to forget about her if something went wrong. She knew she was less important than Kimberly, but that didn't mean she wanted to be abandoned in the face of danger.

The statues were all exactly as they had been last night, and were every bit as creepy in the daytime. It did not help that the basement was damp and oppressive, nor that the torches could only illuminate a small portion of the enormous room, and they filled that portion with flickering light and dancing shadows. Kat half expected the statues to move at any moment, but they did not.

Fighting her fears, she followed as Kimberly moved among the statues. She could hardly breathe for fear Kimberly might accidentally touch one of them and turn to stone all over again. But she did not, even though many of their arms and hands jutted into the path.

Kat was ashamed of her fear, but she could not seem to stop reliving the events of last night. She knew magic existed, and she knew it could be sinister – after all, she had been held in its thrall and forced to act against her will. But seeing magic used blatantly to trap or kill had chilled her to the bone. True, it had not affected her, but she could well imagine the horror of watching the stone consume her. It was the same fear that had haunted her dreams ever since Dulcea freed her from Rita's control. It was the fear that she would never truly be free, that one day it would creep over her again and this time there would be no escape.

She touched the necklace that remained always around her neck, gaudy in its profusion of semi-precious stones. It was the charm that kept her safe, but it felt like a collar more than anything. She did not think the protective charm Dulcea had given her would protect her from something like the stone spell.

She felt a bit of envy as she watched Tommy and Kimberly step into the opening at the center of the room. What would it be like to have such a powerful love, a man who would do anything for her? _It must be amazing,_ she thought, but at the same time she knew that she was no Kimberly. Still, she longed for that kind of love. She remembered Tommy, brave and reckless, kissing Kimberly in what might have been their final moments, and wondered what her life would have been like if he had fallen for her instead.

They deserved their love, she thought, and she did not. All she had ever done was betray her kingdom and accidentally drive a wedge between her King and Queen.

Her torch was shaking. She did her best to steady it.

"You are determined to do this?" Dulcea asked.

Kimberly nodded. Tommy took her hand.

"Remember what I told you," the sorceress cautioned.

The Queen's back was to Kat, so she couldn't see Kimberly's face. She could only marvel at her courage. Kimberly neither moved nor spoke, but the air in the room became charged, the way it felt during a thunderstorm, as if a bolt of lightning were about to crash down from the heavens.

Kat watched, transfixed. From her own experience with magic, she remembered little more than glimpsed moments and words chanted in a language she could not understand. Kimberly, however, seemed to have no use for spells and incantations, inflicting her will upon the world with determination alone.

The feeling of electricity in the air mounted until it seemed that something must give way or surely lightning _would_ strike. Kimberly swayed and made a sound that was almost a whimper. Tommy was the only thing keeping her on her feet.

Nothing happened.

"I can't," Kimberly choked out in horror, an instant before she lost her grip on her power. It burst through the room like a whirlwind, dousing the torches and sending Kat sprawling into the dark. She landed hard and awkwardly against one of the statues and for a horrified moment did not even dare to breathe.

But she did not turn to stone. The magic did not harm her beyond the initial blast. She breathed a sigh of relief, and heard Tommy calling Kimberly's name and receiving no response.

"Is everyone all right?" Jason asked.

Somewhere off to Kat's left, Rocky cursed and someone got a torch lit again. There were grudging agreements from nearly everyone; it would seem that no one had been hurt, except... In the dim light of that single torch, Kat could see that at least the Queen had not begun to turn to stone again. She had simply collapsed, and would have fallen if Tommy hadn't kept her more or less on her feet.

"I'm okay," Kimberly said, trying to push Tommy away.

"You're not," Kat heard Tommy murmur. "If you were, this wouldn't keep happening. Kimberly, you can't keep pushing yourself like this."

"I have to," she retorted.

Listening in on their conversation made Kat feel awkward, so she directed her attention elsewhere. Steeling herself, she made her way over to Rocky and relit her torch from the one Adam had lit a few moments earlier. She felt a little bit better with a light in her hand, but when Aisha asked, "Do you mind if I take that?" she surrendered it without a question and tried not to watch as Aisha approached Tommy and Kimberly.

_I wish I could help,_ she thought, _but anything I do will probably just make it worse._

She knew it was a bad idea to dwell on that topic, so she looked around for Jason and Dulcea. The two of them were conferring with Billy. Kat wondered what they were talking about.

"Go," Adam said softly.

Kat turned, trying not to look too confused.

Adam smiled. "Go. I can tell you're curious. They won't mind if you join them." She hesitated. "You're a part of this group, too, Kat. You are just as entitled to know what's going on as any of the rest of us."

"What about you two?" she asked.

Rocky chuckled. "We're curious, too, but someone has to stand watch. Aisha'll fill us in later, or we'll get it from Jason or Billy. Or you." Kat noted that he had an almost mischievous smile. "Since you're not a knight, you don't have to stand watch. So go find out. And then come tell us."

For the first time since setting out on this journey, Kat felt almost like she belonged. She hurried over to where Jason, Billy, and Dulcea were talking, moving as quickly as she could among the statues. Jason flashed her a small smile as she joined them, but Billy and Dulcea barely seemed to notice her presence at all.

"I realize that the Queen wishes to depart as quickly as possible," Billy was saying, "but she is simply in no condition to travel at this juncture."

"We can't just ignore her wishes," Jason pointed out. Kat was inclined to agree, but she understood where Billy was coming from, too. What good would it do to obey the Queen's wishes if in so doing they allowed her to be injured or even killed? Their job was to protect and safeguard her.

"We may have to," Billy countered.

Jason shook his head. "Dulcea, is there anything you can do to help her? All of this seems to be related to her magic. Is there anything you can teach her to help her control it better?" He frowned. "Because right now it seems more like the magic is controlling her than the other way around."

Dulcea nodded briefly. "It may be that the cause of her distress is magical," she allowed. "However… there may be nothing that I can do."

"But," Kat found herself saying almost before she realized she had something to say, "you're a sorceress, you know magic. You protected me from Rita. Can't you protect Kimberly from this? Or at least help her?"

"I can try," Dulcea said. She looked tired, but maybe that was just the dim, flickering light.

Kat touched her necklace again. "Would this be able to help her?" she asked, struck by a sudden idea.

"You must never remove it," Dulcea repeated, just as she had the day she gave Kat the charm. "Or it will no longer protect you."

"I know that, but… can't I give it to her?"

"The charm's power is tied to _you_, Katherine. It will not work for Kimberly," Dulcea explained gently.

"It did before!" Kat insisted. "When… when those ghosts, or whatever those things were…" She trailed off, realizing that she had no idea if the charm had actually done anything to protect Kimberly – or herself. For all she knew, they could have walked safely through that white fog unaided. It could have been ordinary fog for all she knew. But the thought that the charm could protect her had made her brave. Brave enough to risk diving right into that fog, and to risk hauling Kimberly through it with her. "Oh, I'm such a fool," she concluded.

But Jason seemed intrigued by her idea nonetheless. "You have a charm that protects you from evil power?" he asked.

Kat gave a cautious nod. She'd been reluctant to tell anyone about the necklace's true purpose, lest she have to then explain what Rita had made her do. "My necklace."

Turning to Dulcea, Jason asked, "Could you make something like that for Kimberly?"

Dulcea opened her mouth to say something, then closed it abruptly, a strange look on her face. "If it is her own innate power that is doing this to her, I cannot create a charm to protect her from it. There is no charm in this world that can protect one from oneself."

"Well," Jason said, sounding a bit exasperated with the entire situation, "it was a nice thought. Anyone have any other ideas?"

"I suggest that we wait and give the Queen time to recover," Billy muttered.

"Understood," Jason said. "Dulcea?"

The sorceress was silent for a long time. Finally, she said, "I will do what I can to help her. But only she can help me determine what the problem is. And I am not certain this is the right moment to push her."

"That's all I can ask," Jason told her. "And now I think we'd better find out if Kim's really as okay as she says."

Kat could not disagree, but she was surprised to see that during their brief conference, Tommy and Kimberly had disappeared.

 

 

As Tommy held Kimberly, he wondered if she even had the strength left to stand. She had seemed so weak, almost frail, for the past several days, so little like his usually fiery Kimberly, but he hadn't realized it was this bad. He had thought it was because she was angry with him that she seemed so cold and withdrawn. Now he was beginning to second-guess himself. This, he now suspected, had very little to do with him. How had this happened to her right under his nose?

He was grateful for Aisha's steadying presence and the light she had thought to bring. She gripped her torch in one hand, and the other was pressed between Kimberly's two hands.

"I'm sorry," Kimberly was saying, as she had been since she collapsed.

"Shh," Aisha soothed. "It's okay. The important thing right now is that you rest and breathe. Recover your strength. The rest can wait." She seemed to know just what to say, while Tommy mentally flailed about and could come up with nothing that might actually help.

"We have no idea how long these people have been stuck like this," Kimberly protested, her voice grim.

"And they aren't going anywhere," Tommy interjected. "You, on the other hand, clearly need to rest."

She was already slumped against him, with only his strength to keep her on her feet. It was easy to shift her and scoop her up.

"Put me down," she insisted.

Tommy ignored her. He made his way through the statues with Kimberly in his arms again, feeling echoes of last night when he had done the same thing. Aisha slipped her hand free of Kimberly's and followed along behind with the torch.

"Aisha," Kimberly protested, "Back me up on this!"

"I would," Aisha quipped, "but he's right."

Kimberly groaned, but she didn't fight as he carried her up the stairs and out into the castle's yard. When they emerged into the afternoon light, it seemed as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. He was starting to agree with her. She shouldn't go back into that castle. And at the same time, he had a feeling he knew what she was going to say next.

As it turned out, he was wrong.

"I failed them," she murmured.

"You didn't fail them," he assured her.

She shook her head. "I did. I couldn't free them from the spell." He wondered where Aisha had gone, but thought it best not to look for her right now. Instead, he walked part of the way around the castle keep, until they were out of sight of anyone coming out of the keep. When he found a likely looking spot, he sat down with his back to the wall, Kimberly still cradled against him.

He tried not to let his exasperation show. "Kimberly, you can't do everything," he pointed out. "Whoever did this must be very skilled with magic. You've only begun to learn how to use your magic at all. We have no idea what you're capable of, so why try to do everything at once?"

"Because they need me," she said. "How can I just leave them like that, knowing that I broke free? If I could escape, then I have to be able to help them. I just have to figure out _how_."

"You didn't break free," he murmured, thinking back to last night. "_We_ broke the spell. Together."

Her brow furrowed in confusion, then her eyes went wide. "You're right." He could see fear rising in those eyes as she relived the horror of that night. "I couldn't break free until you…" Her cheeks were turning an adorable shade of red. "I'm never going to be able to use my magic again if we have to kiss to make it work."

Personally, he would like magic a lot better if using it meant kissing Kimberly. Instead of telling her that, he suggested, "Maybe we don't have to go that far. Maybe it's just a matter of learning to work together."

Kimberly stared at him for a long time, saying nothing, as if she did not want to believe what he said. He hadn't been entirely sure of it when he said it, but now that he really thought about it, it seemed to fit their situation exactly. "You always said that you couldn't use magic until you were married. It wasn't until the wedding ceremony that you could talk with your ancestors the way you do now. And that night was when the dreams started." He stopped talking, realizing too late that this was dangerous territory. What if her magic only worked when she trusted him? It hadn't occurred to him until just now that it could even be a possibility.

The same thought seemed to occur to Kimberly. "We've made such a mess of this," she murmured. He could see tears in her eyes before she ducked her head and looked away from him. He didn't push her. At that moment, he was just glad she hadn't pulled away completely.

A while later, she asked, "Tommy?"

"Yeah?" He let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes.

"I miss home," she confided. "I miss parties and nice clothes and being clean, and not having to know anything about magic at all."

"Me too," he admitted. A year ago, he would have laughed at the idea of wanting to go to parties with a pretty princess, or of not wanting to go in search of dragons and magic swords, or have grand adventures in a strange land. But a year ago, he hadn't met Kimberly yet. Now he was starting to get tired of the constant trek and never having a moment's peace. All he wanted right now was for her to be safe and happy. He wanted to know she was strong and healthy, and not have to worry about her every moment. Even if that meant he had to escort her to a party.

"We can go back if you want," he murmured.

She shook her head, then leaned against him to rest her head against his shoulder. "I don't know why, but I don't think we could go back right now even if we wanted to."

His first instinct was to protest that of course they could, but he kept silent. She had an alarming tendency to be right about things these days.

"Someone set that trap for me," she went on a few moments later. They both knew who had set that trap, but he didn't want to say it any more than she did. Except for the small hints Dulcea had given them and this recent display of power, Zedd was an unknown. "And I'm afraid… what if I can't ever escape him now? What if, now that he's found me, he's going to hunt me forever?"

"I'll put myself between him and you as many times as I have to," he told her. He would have done the same if it was Rita that hunted her, or if it was anyone else. "While I live, he will never have you."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she admitted.

"I'm not just going to let him kill me," he protested. "I have Erë's protection–"

"And that did a lot of good when those ghosts came out of their graves, didn't it?" she asked. It sounded like she was crying. "I almost let all of you die, and all because I was upset about something that wasn't even your fault. I knew it wasn't your fault or Katherine's. I _knew_ that, but I wanted so badly to have someone to blame… I almost killed Kat. I tried to shoot her! And I almost let those ghosts take you and Jason and 'Sha and…"

She was crying in earnest now. He smoothed her hair with one hand because he had no idea what else to do. He'd had no idea that she had tried to kill Kat; Katherine certainly hadn't mentioned it. In fact, the two had been getting along remarkably well, as far as he could tell. "Let it go," he whispered.

"All of this is my fault," she said, sniffling. "We wouldn't even be here right now if I hadn't insisted on it. I'm a terrible Queen."

"You're not," he assured her. "And this isn't your fault. Jason would still be here, whether the rest of us tagged along or not. Who knows what would've happened to him without us here?"

"Probably a whole lot less trouble," Kimberly muttered unhappily.

He was beginning to realize that arguing with her would be pointless. She had already made up her mind. At least she wasn't crying anymore. He only wished he could do more to help her.

 

 

They remained at the castle, warded by Dulcea's magic, far longer than Kimberly would have liked. But Jason was pleased to see that after only a few days spent camped in the castle's yard, she began to recover. After three days, he decided that she looked well enough to ride. Since no one else objected, that was when they took their leave.

Dulcea had spent much of those three days working with Kimberly, teaching her a series of magical protections so that she might have at least some means of defending herself if she ran into another trap or found herself under attack. Aside from her interactions with Kimberly and Tommy, however, the sorceress seemed more withdrawn than ever. For his part, Jason let them be. He was glad enough of a chance to rest for a bit, even if Dulcea was unwilling to provide answers to any of his questions or address any of his concerns.

In the mornings he sparred with Rocky and Adam and in the afternoons he spent his time tending to his neglected gear and the horses, and considering what course to take next. One day he even discovered that Aisha had been teaching Billy the basics of fighting and offered his assistance. It brought a smile to his face to see his old friend learning new skills that might one day save his life.

But the respite was over all too quickly.

They couldn't stay in this castle forever, even if it were a far more hospitable hiding place. He knew it wasn't going to go over well with Kimberly, but they had to leave whether she could free the castle's residents or not. So he was very surprised when she simply bowed her head and agreed when he said that they needed to set off again on the morrow. What could Dulcea have told her to have caused this change of heart? He watched her closely that night, but was no closer to an answer by morning.

After that, the days began to bleed together in his mind until he lost track of just how many days and nights had passed on the road. They avoided all signs of human habitation and spent days trekking across trackless wilderness just to avoid ruined fields and collapsing citadels like the one they had just abandoned. And all the while, they were hunted by all manner of strange and twisted animals, like the ones back home but fundamentally changed. Many of them looked like they had once been dead or mortally wounded, with gaping wounds and bits of bone jutting through skin and hide.

By the time two weeks had passed, Dulcea had become almost entirely silent. If he'd had any energy left, Jason would have worried about her. But it was all he could do to keep everyone in one piece and not lose any of the horses. The attacks were growing more frequent, which told him they were heading in the right direction, but did not make it any easier to protect his friends. He was only one knight; there was only so much he could do when a pack of half-starved wolves set upon their group from the darkness in the middle of the night.

Luckily, they had only lost two of the horses in that attack, but it only got worse from there. Their progress slowed to a crawl, and he began to fear that Zedd would be able to wear them down without ever confronting them directly. He remembered too well the monstrous creature that had injured Adam, and he was no longer certain that Dulcea would be able to help should something similar occur in the future. For the first time, he realized that there was a very real possibility that some, or even all, of them would not make it home from this journey.

That night he couldn't sleep, so he sat up with Aisha, who had the watch, and stared into the fire and thought dark thoughts. _Trini, I promised I'd come find you when I'm done with this,_ he thought, _but now I'm not so sure I'll be coming back._ Maybe he was just being morbid, but he had a bad feeling going into the next morning.

And as it turned out, he had good reason for feeling that way.

He looked down at the twig in his hand and sighed. This was the third day in a row that he had drawn scout duty. Kimberly snickered lightheartedly at his misfortune and Tommy offered to trade, but Jason shook his head. He had drawn the short twig fair and square, and there was no getting out of it. He scanned his companions to see who would be his partner for the day; Dulcea held the other short twig, as silent as ever.

"Sorry, bro," Tommy said as he handed Jason yet another set of carefully hoarded scout's rations for the day. That was another thing that Jason preferred not to think about: they had been on the road so long that they were at risk of running out of food and he had no idea where they could hope to find more. The land around them was barren and inhospitable. Even plants that looked familiar were dark and twisted, bitter tasting and inedible. And the animals…

"Thanks, but I'll live," Jason said. Dulcea wasn't the worst partner he could have asked for, even though she no longer said much. And besides, "We're almost at the end of the road anyway." Or at least, he hoped they were. It was starting to seem like they had been on this journey forever.

He gathered his gear and mounted up without further complaint, and then followed Dulcea out of camp. He supposed that the upside of scout duty was that he got out of breaking down camp each morning, but that was just about the only good thing about it.

Not long after they set out, it began to rain. The gentle drizzle was not a problem in itself, but the cold that came with it was irritating at first and then downright uncomfortable. Jason and Dulcea rode in silence, Jason huddled in his damp cloak, Dulcea typically impervious to the weather.

In spite of the bad conditions, Jason kept his eyes peeled for any sign of danger. They had thus far managed to avoid all human habitation and escape from all of the animals that sought to do them harm, but there was no telling what might be around the next bend in the trail or when their luck might run out. So far, the light forest that covered the land had managed to keep their movements hidden, but Jason had no idea how vast the forest could possibly be, nor how long it might conceal them. Sometimes it seemed that the forest was growing thinner around them and they must be approaching some sort of end to the trees, but then the vegetation would grow so thick and dense that it was a struggle to get through.

Shortly after they'd entered the forest, he'd asked Dulcea, "This isn't a very old forest, is it?"

Her answer had been a short, forced, "No."

If he asked her today, he did not think she would be able to answer at all. _Dulcea, what happened to you back there?_ He wanted to ask, but did not.

It was nearly midday when they rode up a small rise and the trees opened up enough that Jason could see how big the forest really was. He paused there for a moment to take in the view, even though he knew it was a vulnerable position. The trees spread on to the horizon on three sides, but even through the rain he could see that toward the northeast they eventually came to an end. In that direction, the forest turned to a series of rocky promontories, rising high above the surrounding land. And nestled into the side of the foremost of those outcrops, he could make out the shape of an enormous citadel.

Dulcea backtracked so her horse stood next to his. "The heart of the Kingdom of Heaven," she murmured. "Phaedos itself is named for that citadel."

"That's it?"

"That is the seat of the kingdom," she confirmed. It was the most he had heard her say in days. He realized with a shock that she was no longer wearing Zordon's crystal around her neck, and wondered where it had gone. There was no time for that now; she had probably given it over to Billy again anyway.

"So that's where I'll find the Sword of Power," he muttered. It seemed so close all of a sudden, that he was tempted to go racing straight for it… but his friends were following behind and he knew they would never forgive him if he left them behind. And besides, he had an inkling of what Zedd was capable of. Better to wait and tackle that problem with his friends than go rushing in headlong and heedless of the danger. "Let's keep moving."

Dulcea nodded and headed down the path they had been following. Jason couldn't resist one last look at the citadel. It was still miles and miles distant, but soon…

The afternoon dragged on slowly. The rain made the going tough now that the ground was saturated. Jason followed in the path Dulcea forged, but it was hard to keep an eye out for trouble when just staying on his horse required so much of his attention. The terrain was becoming quite rugged now, threatening small landslides every time they had to go downhill.

As day turned to dusk, rain turned to fog and Jason began to look for good potential campsites. They would have to find a workable spot and lead their friends to it soon, or risk getting lost in the dark.

Another day was nearly over, and he was that much closer to his goal. He still felt the desire to throw caution to the wind and go after the Sword right this moment, but the fog and impending darkness made that an impossible dream. And besides, he couldn't afford to blow it now. Not with that citadel looming so close. Not when a single mistake could cost him the destiny he had come all this way to find.

A fallen branch snapped in the gloom nearby. He knew better than to think it would be nothing. In hindsight, he knew they probably should have regrouped with the others instead of pressing on through the fog. The atmosphere seemed to grow more oppressive with each step that his steed took, until it was downright creepy. Jason almost expected to run into some kind of monster at any moment. That was when he knew he was letting his nerves get the better of him. There was no one else around but Dulcea, but he could have sworn someone was watching him.

His horse spooked an instant before the figures came rushing out of the undergrowth. There were at least a dozen of them, strange men that looked almost skeletal and wore old-fashioned armor with a Z-shaped insignia across their rusted breastplates, and they swarmed right for Jason and Dulcea. Jason struggled to regain control of his horse, but the beast was mad with fear and he soon found himself tossed into the mud while the horse fled. He clambered to his feet while the strange men silently mobbed Dulcea and pulled her from her horse.

"Dulcea!" His sword was in his hand in an instant. Unthinking, he raced to her aid.

She burst free of the mass, quarterstaff in hand, just as he reached them. "Come," she said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him after her as she raced down the path. "We must lead them away from the others."

"What are they?" Jason asked. Their skin was tinged a sickly green-grey and they stank of death. He couldn't imagine that these attackers were human. No human warrior would have charged at a mounted knight and a sorceress without even rudimentary weapons the way these creatures had. "Can't we just stop them before the others get here?"

"They were once men. Now they are Zedd's zombies. Neither living nor dead, they cannot be slain by ordinary means. We cannot stop them, only try to keep them from finding our friends," Dulcea explained. Her expression was strained, as if it took a great deal of effort just to speak.

Jason did not like the sound of these 'zombies'. How could something be attacking them if it wasn't even alive? The answer had to be magic, which meant…

"Can you use magic to stop them?"

"They are immune to the effects of my magic."

Jason was about to ask what would happen if they used magic to open a gigantic pit in the ground and dumped the zombies into it when a second group emerged directly in front of them. He did not know if such a thing was even possible, but he suspected it would take care of the zombie soldiers quite handily. Too bad they were surrounded now and there was no time to worry about what magic could and couldn't do. Dulcea was clearly unwilling to try it, anyway. He scrambled to a halt just before running into the zombies, ready to defend if any of the zombies ventured too close. "I think we need a better plan."

He was all too happy to get a chance to test his blade against Zedd's soldiers, whatever they were in truth. He slashed at the first one that dared to approach him, but as it turned out fighting them was not very effective. His sword cut through the rusty armor and bit into the flesh beneath, but otherwise it seemed to have no effect. The zombies did not even appear to bleed.

The blade caught halfway through the torso of the next zombie he struck, and when it whirled away from him it dragged his sword with it. Somewhat horrified, Jason let the weapon go. It wouldn't have done him much good to keep it, not with more of the zombie soldiers rushing in after the first two. They leaped for him almost gleefully, forcing him to his knees by sheer weight. Nearby, they did the same to Dulcea, although her staff was more effective at beating them back than his sword had been. But no matter how many times she hit them, they just kept coming until they had subdued her.

In short order, they had both been bound and they zombies were half-leading and half-dragging them through the forest.

"Where are they taking us?" Jason whispered to Dulcea.

"To their master."


	34. Daylight Dies

"I'm worried," Kimberly said for the thirtieth time, fully expecting her companions to ignore her yet again.

"It's getting late," Adam pointed out, much to her surprise. "Why haven't Jason and Dulcea come back yet?"

Nobody had an answer, so they trudged on in gloomy, wet, cold silence for a while longer. Kimberly hated the fog and the dark and the wet, unstable ground beneath her horse's feet, but she hated the gnawing feeling of worry even more. Something was wrong. She didn't know exactly what, but it was making her nervous. Whatever it was, she was certain that their friends had already encountered it, and it would only be a matter of time before they ran into it, too.

The sound of hoofbeats in the darkness had them all on high alert, but the horses were moving awfully fast… and when they came upon their brethren, Jason and Dulcea's horses were riderless and clearly terrified.

"Oh, gods," Kimberly breathed.

Tommy, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha managed to corral the runaway horses while the remainder of the group looked on in silent horror. No one wanted to ask the obvious question: what had their friends run into that could take down Jason _and_ Dulcea?

Kimberly's first fear was that it had to be something big and powerful and dangerous, but the more she thought about it the more she feared that Jason and Dulcea had encountered an unfriendly _human_ force. Jason was willing to fight for his life if necessary, but he was less willing to take a human life to save his own. Or at least, she thought he was. If he was even still alive. _Jason, you have got to stop doing this to me,_ she thought.

"We have to find them," she found herself saying.

"In the dark? And the rain?" Tommy asked. Even in the dark and the rain she could see that he wanted to go racing through the unfamiliar forest in search of their lost friends every bit as much as she did.

"Not in the dark," she countered. "If they're in trouble, you know we can't delay." She fumbled in her pack for a moment before pulling out the torch she'd been saving. They each had a supply of wood that they had kept as safe and dry as possible all day, once it had become obvious the rain wasn't going to let up.

For this, she did not have to rely on Tommy's cooperation, though she knew he would give it in an instant. Instead, she pulled on the energy in the world around her, drawing it in as Dulcea had taught her, and expending just a tiny bit of that power to set fire to her torch. The rest she held onto as a safeguard; the fire burned brighter and pinker than an ordinary flame, and the stored power would feed it and control it, so that it would not go out if doused in water and would – hopefully – not set fire to anything it touched.

To her relief, the magic worked exactly as she wanted. She handed this first torch off to Katherine, who was closest. "Give me your torches," she said to the others. She lit each of them a torch just as she had done her own, and when she was done she found herself suddenly in the position to give orders. She took a deep breath and gave the command. "Let's spread out and cover as much ground as we can. Maybe we can find some clues."

She did not want to admit it, but by the time they found the spot where trouble had befallen their friends, the heavy rain might already have washed away any clues. Instead she strung her bow and hooked it over one shoulder so it would be ready if she needed it. Her quiver of arrows, as always, was at her side. She hoped that she would not need the weapon, but given the choice between her bow and the knife at her belt, she would choose the bow every time.

As her friends fanned out around her, following the trail their missing companions had left through the forest, she kept her eyes peeled for anything that might tell them what had happened. She tried to put up a brave front, but she was terrified. _Please don't be dead_, she thought fervently. _We didn't come all this way to lose you now._

Aisha gave a shout from Kimberly's left; she'd found something. Kimberly guided her horse through the thick underbrush in the direction Aisha's shout had come from. She didn't even need to get very close to see that some sort of struggle had taken place here. The ground was churned up with what looked like hundreds of footprints. Tommy returned from further ahead with Jason's sword and Dulcea's staff.

There was no other sign of their friends, except a trail of footprints heading into the northeast. Lots and lots of human-sized footprints.

The weather had been growing worse all night, and now the sky let loose its full fury. Rain lashed down from the heavens and the wind blew so fiercely Kimberly almost thought it might knock her out of her seat. It broke her heart to say it, but she knew they could not keep searching in this weather. They would have to stop for the night and hope they could pick up the trail in the morning.

"We'll set up camp here," she said, without giving Tommy a chance to take charge. "We need to get some rest so we can start fresh tomorrow. I want everyone up at dawn and on the road as soon as possible."

If anyone objected to the plan, they were wise enough to keep quiet about it. Kimberly kept a close eye on Tommy anyway. If anyone in their group was dumb enough to go off on a rescue mission in the middle of a storm –at night, and in unfamiliar territory – it was Tommy. She might not have completely forgiven him yet for not telling her about Kat, but she didn't want him dead, either.

Long after they finally got their tents set up, Kimberly sat awake and miserable, listening to the storm lash rain against the tent's already sodden walls and supposing that this was what she got for insisting they stop to rest. Tommy dozed occasionally, but most of the time she could feel him watching her. They were back to sharing a tent, however grudgingly. After the stone magic trap, she felt better having him around.

She had missed having him nearby. Even though the fight, if she could call it that, had only really spanned a few days, it had seemed like forever. She looked over at him where he lay pretending to sleep, and wanted nothing better than to go over there and let him wrap his arms around her and tell her everything would be fine. It would have been wonderful to let herself fall asleep safe and secure in his arms. But she didn't. How could she sleep, knowing that her friends were out in the middle of this storm and prisoners besides?

It seemed like they managed to solve one problem only to fall right into another. If only she hadn't taken so long recovering back there, maybe they might have beat the storm and been able to catch up to Jason and Dulcea and their captors. Or if only she had spoken out more loudly against the idiotic idea of sending scouts ahead each day, then maybe…

"Kim," Tommy said without opening his eyes. "Get some rest."

"I am resting," she protested.

"Then how come you're thinking so hard I can practically hear you?"

If anything had been handy, she would have thrown it at him. Since nothing was, she sat in angry silence. He sat up as best he could in the low-slung tent and looked at her. She looked away.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing you haven't already thought of."

"Kimberly, this is not your fault."

She blinked a few times, surprised. "I never said it was."

"No," he allowed, "but you're like me that way. You're going over every possible scenario in your head, wondering what you could have done differently to prevent this." She stared stubbornly at the far wall of the tent. She didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling in that completely infatuated way she'd once loved so much. If she looked at him now, she had a bad feeling that she would fall in love with him all over again, and as tempting as that was, she wasn't ready for it yet. And most of all, she hated to admit that he was right.

He figured it out from her silence anyway. "Nothing you could have done would have changed this," he told her. "And it doesn't matter, anyway."

She glared at him then, irritated beyond all reason that he would even consider saying such a thing. "Why not?"

"Because tomorrow we're going to get them back."

 

 

Morning dawned clear and bright, with lingering puddles and soaked travelers the only signs of the storm that had passed in the night. Aisha awoke before the first light and breathed deep the scent of water, but there wasn't time to enjoy it. Today, they were on the hunt. With any luck, their friends' captors would not have been able to get very far in the storm and they would be able to catch up today. With less luck, they would spend the day following a wet and messy trail, trying their best not to fall behind and lose the trail altogether.

Unfortunately, the storm wasn't going to make that easy. By the time light was creeping across the sky she could tell already that clues were going to be scanty at best; the weather had even washed away most of their own trail leading to their makeshift campsite.

Rocky and Adam were up shortly after Aisha. Rocky joined her while Adam saw to their gear. "Somehow I don't think this is going to be the most fun day we've ever had," he observed.

Aisha grunted unhappily.

"'Sha?"

"I'm worried about Kimberly," she admitted. "This is a lot of strain on her… I promised Trini, I swore an oath to protect her, and I can't ever seem to do anything to help her."

Rocky chuckled; Aisha made a face at him. "And then there's the fact that Jason and Dulcea are missing," she went on, every bit as determined to make him see the hopelessness of their situation as he was not to see it. "And to judge by the mess they left here last night, they were taken by at least a dozen soldiers…"

"How do you know they were soldiers?"

She shot him a furious look, but realized she didn't actually know Jason and Dulcea had been taken by soldiers. All she knew was that they'd put up a fight and lost, and then they'd been taken away without their weapons and horses. "So what's your theory?" she managed to ask without sounding too annoyed. He clearly thought he'd been very clever.

"I think if they were soldiers, our friends would be dead, unless someone specifically wanted them captured alive," he murmured. "But they were alive when they left this clearing. And I think they're still alive now. We don't need to find their trail, we just need to figure out where they were taken."

"Sometimes I think there's no hope for you," she muttered.

He grinned and settled an arm around her shoulders, turning her slightly toward him as if he were going to hug her. She stiffened and tried to pull away, not wanting to be comforted. He nodded his head once in the same direction that he had been pulling her and she realized that comfort wasn't his intent at all. "And what do you see over there?" he asked, just to ram his point home.

It was difficult to see with the distance, but Aisha eventually did see the citadel nestled against the far-off cliffs without Rocky having to point it out. In the darkness and the storm last night, nobody had seen it. "There's a castle over there!" she gasped.

"And where do soldiers come from?"

She glared. She hated when he did this, taking whichever side disagreed with her, no matter how much the tactic helped her to see the bigger picture. "And how do _you_ know they came from that castle?"

"See any other castles lurking around here?"

"Now, now," Adam broke in. "The last thing we need right now is to be squabbling amongst ourselves." He gave Aisha a small smile; she returned it halfheartedly. She knew that watching them argue helped him think almost as much as arguing helped her and Rocky, but that did not mean she liked it. And it did not mean he was wrong. It would be just their luck for the rest of the group to think they really _were_ fighting with each other.

"So what do you suggest?" she asked.

He shrugged, but she could see he was taking the measure of that distant citadel, or doing the best he could at this distance. "I think Rocky's right. I don't know why, but I'm completely sure that's where we're going to find Jason and Dulcea. Nothing else makes sense."

It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but having nothing better to offer she was rather inclined to agree. Whoever had captured Jason and Dulcea, they had to have come from _somewhere_. And there were no other obvious somewhere anywhere in sight. There was only that oddly ominous citadel, nearly hidden among the rocks. Looking at it now, Aisha could practically feel eyes on her. She supposed it couldn't hurt to start their search there. At least it gave them a starting point, when the alternative meant having nothing to go on.

"I don't like it," she murmured.

"Neither do I," Kimberly said. It was all Aisha could do not to jump in surprise; she hadn't even heard the Queen come over. Tommy was standing a couple of paces behind her and to one side, but both of their gazes were fixed on that castle. "But what choice do we have?"

In the end they all agreed: the castle would be their destination. It was too far off to tell if it was inhabited or not, but Aisha had a feeling they would find it fully inhabited… by their enemies. At the time, she hadn't really wanted to know, but now she found herself wishing that Dulcea had told them more about Zedd. All they really knew was that he supposedly ruled Phaedos and had caused the corruption that Dulcea claimed had crept across the land during the past thousand years. For all Aisha knew, it had always been like this.

She had plenty of time to think about it. The trek to the castle was a long one, and complicated by the fact that their friends and their captors had apparently disappeared without a trace. And since Dulcea had been the only one in the group with even a working knowledge of Phaedos's geography, they were at a loss without her and ended up having to backtrack several times after likely looking trails turned out to veer off into dead ends and entirely wrong directions. The soggy ground did not help at all.

By midday, Aisha was running out of patience. "I would like to know how these men managed to catch and disarm Jason and Dulcea," she mentioned to Billy at one point, "and then didn't even have the decency to leave a trail for us to follow."

She had not expected a response, but Billy admitted, "It does seem a bit suspicious. Perhaps magic was involved."

That idea had not occurred to her at all. Dulcea was an accomplished sorceress, or so it had always seemed. It was difficult to believe that someone could out-magic her, but she supposed it could be done. Kimberly had told her how Dulcea was unable to help in the fight against Rita Repulsa, having exhausted much of her magical strength in order to save Jason's life. What if she'd had to do something similar last night, and that was why and how they'd been captured?

Aisha supposed there was only one way to find out, so she shut up and urged her horse to walk a little faster. The storm might be over, but the ground was still treacherous and slippery enough to make their progress frustratingly slow. She glanced over at the distant citadel periodically, noting with a sense of grim satisfaction that it grew closer and closer each time she looked to it.

_Soon_, she thought, and, _I hope we make it in time._

 

 

Whatever Jason had been expecting, a good old fashioned dungeon was not it. And yet that was exactly where he found himself when he awoke. He did not remember losing consciousness, though he did have a fleeting memory of one of the strange zombie-men pulling his helm off. He supposed it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume they'd hit him over the head fairly soon after that, if only to stop him from fighting so hard against them. He'd nearly broken free a time or two, too.

He wondered how long he had been unconscious, and what had happened to Dulcea. Because he had little else to do, he wondered if he would ever get his sword and helm back, and doubted it. And he wondered if their friends had realized yet that they were gone, and felt a little hope. Of course they had.

For the moment he was utterly alone in a small cell that had thick stone walls, one of which had a thick wooden door set into it. The door had a slit at the bottom so that food could be shoved into the cell, and it also had a small viewing window farther up, but that was too small for him to ever hope to fit through and it was secured by iron bars anyway.

The worst part was the darkness. There were no windows anywhere, and with no light even seeping through the slit in the door, the cell was completely dark inside. What he knew about his prison, he knew from blindly feeling his way around. He had no idea how much time might have passed since he and Dulcea were captured, or since he had lost consciousness. So he paced restlessly in the confines of his cell, because he had to do _something_ and there was nothing else he could do.

A few failed attempts had proved to him that trying to break the door down would only result in injury, and he'd mapped out every corner of the cell that he could reach and found not a single other option for escape. Equal parts frustrated and disgusted by his inability to escape, he paced his way over to the wall opposite the door and sat down.

Zedd had gone to an awful lot of trouble to capture him to just leave him in the dungeon like this, it seemed. Then again, he realized he might never have been the real target of Zedd's attack at all. Zedd might have been after Dulcea the entire time, and it might only have been incidental that he had been captured as well. If that was the case, he was lucky to still be alive. It would have been easier for Zedd simply to dispose of him.

With a chill he wondered if Zedd intended to use him against his friends.

He had a feeling he knew the answer to his own question. And he didn't like it one bit.

Since there was nothing else he could do, he sat in the dark and watched the door and waited. He was absolutely certain that Zedd did not intend to leave him here to rot, that he was alive for a reason. Sooner or later, someone was going to come through that door. And when they did, he would be ready.

 

 

It took them the better part of a day to reach the citadel. Tommy was not as certain as his companions that this was where they would find their missing friends; it seemed far too obvious to him. As they drew closer, it also became obvious that unlike the last castle they had sheltered in, this one was well-maintained. They did not see any sign of human inhabitants, but judging by the condition of the outer walls, Tommy thought it safe to assume that the castle was indeed currently in use.

With that in mind, he gave the order to halt when they were still more or less under the cover of the surrounding forest. The trees had been thinning for a while as they climbed higher and higher toward the rocky outcrop where the castle was nestled, but they still provided some sense of security.

"What's the plan?" Rocky asked.

Everyone was staring at him expectantly. In his mind, he was just a backcountry knight that had ended up marrying a Princess. The fact that he was now King as a result of that marriage had been a complete accident. Why in the world would he have an answer for them? How could he possibly hope to have an answer? Quashing the surprisingly strong feelings of unworthiness, Tommy tried to figure out what they should do next, because he did not have a ready answer for the others.

There were perhaps five hundred yards of very open, very rocky ground between the edge of the trees and the castle wall. He could see no good way to approach the castle unseen, and they definitely did not have a large enough force to attempt any kind of siege. He had hoped that they might be lucky enough to find the drawbridge down, but the castle was sealed up tight.

"I don't know," he admitted. But he knew he needed to figure something out. Jason and Dulcea's lives might count on it. And knowing that only made it that much harder to focus.

Suddenly he remembered the dragon dagger, though he'd hardly thought of it at all lately. He'd carried it in his pack all this way, almost without thinking about it. It seemed like there had to be a reason for it. He wondered if perhaps he ought to see of Erë had spoken the truth when she said he had but to play the dagger's melody and she would come to his aid. And then he had to think he was being ridiculous, grasping at whatever unlikely hope he could think up. Erë was hundreds of miles away, probably sleeping on her mountaintop again. Dragon or no, there was just no way she could possibly hear if he tried to use the dagger to summon her.

"The castle's stone, so flaming arrows are out," Kimberly murmured. She sounded disappointed. Then again, she was the best shot in the group, and fire seemed to be a particular magical specialty of hers. "And there's no cover at all."

He knew better than to ask if she could use magic to hide their approach. She had been doubting her abilities enough lately. The last thing she needed was for him to add more pressure. He would have to find a way to do this without relying on Kimberly's magic.

"We could wait till nightfall and send someone out to check for hidden entrances and sewers and the like," Adam suggested.

"There aren't even any sentries," Aisha pointed out. True enough, there was no sign of anyone on the battlements, and there had been no sign of such since they drew close enough to see. "How do we know we can't just walk right up?"

"For one thing, the drawbridge is up," Kimberly noted sourly. "Unless they raised it and then every last one of them jumped the wall, there's probably someone still inside."

"Or there's another exit somewhere," Aisha said, a teasing note in her voice.

"And for another thing," Kimberly went on, shooting her a glare, "if the bridge is up, we can't exactly just walk on in." They were clearly getting nowhere, just like Tommy was, but the bickering seemed to at least be making Aisha feel better.

"Billy," Tommy interjected. "Any ideas?"

"I concur with Adam," Billy answered. "Since we do not have access to information regarding the castle's layout and have no method of discerning a likely means of ingress, it would be most prudent to wait for nightfall and approach under cover of darkness."

Tommy had to agree, however reluctantly, that it was indeed their best option. Or at least, it was the least awful option, though he disliked the necessity of waiting even the few hours it would take for full darkness to fall. A few hours was more than enough time for harm to come to their missing friends. "All right," he decided. His companions all wore solemn expressions. He knew they would obey whatever he told them to do. "We wait until nightfall. Stay in the trees, out of sight. No fires. Get some rest while you can. It might be a long night."

While the others dispersed, Kimberly made her way over to him. "I don't like this," she told him.

He had to agree. "Got a better idea?"

"No."

"Yeah, me neither."

She sighed. He resisted the urge to pull her to him. "Go get some rest, Kimberly," he said, hoping she would take it as a suggestion rather than an order. "I know you didn't sleep last night."

Another sigh. "Do you really think I could sleep right now, even if I wanted to?"

"I wish you'd try anyway."

She smiled faintly. "It's almost like you're worried about me."

"Don't make me carry you," he warned.

She knew when she had lost. Shaking her head, she turned away to search for a comfortable place to rest among the trees.

She didn't get far.

Light flashed like a lightning bolt no more than five paces from her; smoke exploded outward from the impact site. And when the smoke cleared, a man stood at the center of the scorched mark the light had left on the earth. He was clad head to toe in gleaming silver armor, but Tommy didn't need to see his face to guess who this man was. The intricate Z-shaped emblem that crossed his chest and topped the staff he carried was a big clue: this man could be none other than Lord Zedd, the ruler of Phaedos.

"Welcome to my humble abode," he announced, in a deep, gravelly voice that Tommy did not trust at all. He jammed his helmet back onto his head while his hand went instinctively to his sword, but he did not draw it yet.

Bold as ever, Kimberly did not wait for Zedd to continue before demanding, "What have you done with Jason and Dulcea?"

Tommy could not see past the other man's helmet, but he got the impression that Zedd was smiling. "And what makes you think _I _have your friends?" he asked innocently, if a voice like that could sound innocent.

Kimberly bristled, on the verge of a furious outburst. Tommy half thought she was going to grab one of her arrows and put it through Zedd's eye right then and there, but despite the obvious temptation she did not do so. Instead, still bristling with anger, she stood as tall and proud as any of her forebears and stared him down. "Give them back," she said slowly.

"Now you know I can't do that," Zedd countered. "Why would I bother to take your friends captive?" Kimberly glared, and he almost laughed. "When I'm through with her, you can have Dulcea. She's useless to me. But the other one… he is valuable to me. Too valuable to simply give him up." Tommy wondered what kind of game Zedd was playing. Did he know about Jason's heritage, his as yet untested ability to wield the Sword of Power? Or was he counting on using Jason's value to his friends against them? Only one thing was certain, and that was that Zedd cared not one bit for Jason for his own sake, only for how useful he might be.

And as for what sort of game Zedd was playing at, Tommy got his answer soon enough.

"Now perhaps we can make a trade," Zedd mused. Tommy got the unsettling impression that the helmeted man was leering at Kimberly.

"Absolutely not," he protested at the same time as Kimberly asked, "What kind of a trade?"

"You for the boy," Zedd said flatly.

"No," Tommy reiterated. Kimberly shot him a dangerous look. "There is no way we are going to trade Kimberly for Jason. For one thing, she's our Queen and he's just a knight. And for another thing, how do we know you'd actually give Jason back? And if you did give him back, that you wouldn't just steal him again at the next chance you got?"

Zedd laughed. "You truly think you are clever. How amusing! Your decision does not matter. One way or another, Kimberly will be mine."

Kimberly made a disgusted noise. "I don't think so."

"No?" Tommy watched as Zedd fixed his gaze on Kimberly again. Even with the visor of his helmet obscuring his features, Zedd had an imposing gaze. "Your powers are wasted on these mortals," he told Kimberly, who could no longer seem to look away. "All of your potential will be doomed to remain forever untapped if you stay with them. But I can teach you to be what you were always meant to be."

Kimberly suddenly snapped out of the trance. "And what's that, a monster like you?"

"Perceptive," Zedd murmured appreciatively. "Like me, yes. A monster? No."

"Only because you don't think you're a monster," Aisha spat. Tommy was glad to see her standing so close to Kimberly, ready to defend if necessary. He had never thought he would be grateful to have been on the receiving end of Aisha's defenses before, but the painful memory reassured him now. Her presence and her unstinting defense of her Queen meant he could focus his attention on Zedd, and wouldn't have to worry so much about Kimberly.

Zedd ignored Aisha's comment as if she had not even spoken, or as if she were completely beneath his notice. Then again, since she was not a Queen and only possessed magic loaned to her from Kimberly, she probably was. Tommy wasn't sure exactly _how_ he knew those were the things about Kimberly that Zedd was interested in. He just was.

_No_, he wanted to shout at the top of his voice, _she will never be like you, and she will never be yours!_

He got the sudden impression that Zedd was smirking at him, though with the helmet it was difficult to tell. Just as suddenly, he was aware that he had made his way onto Zedd's list of people to ignore.

"You know I speak the truth," Zedd said next, and they all knew it was to Kimberly only that he spoke. His voice took on a slimy, seductive quality. "Why stay with them, wasting your potential on people that care nothing for you?"

Kimberly's face screwed up in fury.

Zedd carried on as if nothing had changed at all. If anything, his voice became even more sickeningly sweet. "Kimberly, Kimberly…" He gestured toward her friends. "They're only using you for your gift of magic that protects their homeland."

"That isn't true," she told him flatly.

"Isn't it? Even your husband slept with another woman at the first opportunity."

"We weren't even married then!" she sputtered. "And it only happened because of a spell!"

"Face it, not even your precious Tommy wants you. They only care for your power."

Kimberly looked like she was about to blow up… or burst into tears. She gripped her bow in a fist so hard that her knuckles were white. "That. Isn't. True."

"If it will make you feel better," Zedd sneered, "you can hear the truth from the man himself. Go on, Tommy, tell her that you no longer want her."

He aimed his staff at Tommy. It began to glow with a deep red-gold light as Zedd directed its power at him. For a horrified moment, Tommy braced himself. In his mind, he was reliving the moment weeks before, when the ghostly spirit had tried to pull his very soul from its body. But although Tommy could feel the power Zedd's staff radiated, this power simply slipped over him like water in a rain shower. Just as any other power that sought to control him would utterly fail to affect him, thanks to the dragon's power. He drew his sword. "Sorry to disappoint, but that won't work on me."

Zedd cursed in a language Tommy didn't know, but his tone got the point across just fine. "A dragon's marked that one," he snarled, as if he hadn't known.

"I am protected by Erë," he confirmed, taking a step forward. "And by her power, I won't let you take my wife."

"Perhaps I cannot use you to convince her. But I have other means. The dragon's protection does not extend to her," Zedd pointed out.

Tommy's blood ran cold as Zedd turned that staff on Kimberly. "No!" he cried out, lunging recklessly toward Zedd, knowing he was already too late. Kimberly's horror showed plainly on her face for a heartbeat before it faded and her expression went completely, frighteningly blank.

Tommy had barely taken a single step. He forgot about Zedd and turned, scrambling awkwardly, trying to get to Kimberly. If he could just touch her, he might have a chance of breaking whatever spell Zedd was casting on her. "Kim!"

Her eyes narrowed, hardening coldly.

And then, in a blast of that red-gold magic, both Kimberly and Zedd disappeared.


	35. Path of Darkness

Kimberly was standing with her friends one moment, and the next she was drowning in a sea of emptiness. Her body would not obey her, not even her urgent command to breathe. Terror and anxiety knotted in her belly as the horrifying nothingness finally faded away to leave her standing in a spacious, if low-ceilinged chamber that could only be within Zedd's castle. The journey couldn't have lasted more than a few heartbeats, and yet it had seemed to take forever.

The first thing she noticed was that her bow and quiver had not made the journey with her. It was only after she had fully grasped that she was unarmed and at Zedd's mercy that she took a closer look around her.

Unlike the last castle she had been in, this one was more or less clean and in fairly good repair. It was dark in the room, which was lit by only the hearthfire and a few torches near a door at the far end of the room. The hearth was set into a wall close at her left side and its fire should have warmed her, but she still felt inexplicably cold. There was something vaguely slimy about this castle that left her desperately wanting a bath.

She knew by instinct rather than any particular sensation when Zedd released whatever spell had been holding her. Relieved, she gasped in a breath that reeked of sulfur and sent her into a coughing fit. While she was thus occupied, Zedd removed his helmet and tossed it aside. It disappeared an instant before it would have hit the ground. If she hadn't been so furious – and so scared – it would have seemed like a neat trick.

She had barely recovered from her coughing fit when she caught sight of Zedd's uncovered face and recoiled in horror. As if her day needed to get any worse, it looked as if all of his skin had been peeled away, and the shiny, sticky brain matter and muscles were inset with shining metal. What had looked like ornamentation on his helmet, a large silver spike with a Z at its tip, turned out to be attached to his face, which was further obscured by a red visor across his eyes and a metal grill that covered the lower half of his face where his mouth and nose ought to have been.

He looked positively inhuman. She must have made some sort of noise that alerted him to her disgust, because he turned his grotesque head to stare at her then. She found that, for the moment at least, she had full control over her body again and used that control to back away from him. She didn't make it far; two steps later her back was pressed against a stone wall.

"Welcome to your new home," Zedd announced.

"No way," she muttered, edging away against the wall. Gathering her courage after she'd managed to put some distance between them, she repeated more loudly, "There is no way I am going to stay here. Especially not with _you_."

He chuckled. She glanced frantically around for any sort of advantage, and found none. A chill went through her as she realized they weren't just in any room in the castle, they were in a finely appointed bedchamber. When he'd said he would make her his, she hadn't quite thought he meant like _that_.

"When I'm through with you, it won't matter what you think you want," he promised.

It couldn't be that easy for him to change her mind and her feelings, could it? She hoped not, but he'd seemed so confident that he could make Tommy say horrible things to her… If he could do that to Tommy, he could do the same to her. Dulcea had taught her something of magical defense, but she knew that her rudimentary knowledge would not be enough against Zedd.

And she was right.

Zedd still held his staff in his right hand, and now he aimed that staff at her. Instinctively, she realized that he was using it to focus his magical power, but that knowledge did her no good. Her legs felt rooted to the floor. Escape was no longer an option. There was nowhere to hide, and she could not run.

But, she realized, she was not entirely without options.

She'd seen Trini use the topaz's magic to create a sword, a sword Jason had been able to wield in battle against Tommy. Almost without thinking, as soon as the memory occurred to her, she caught it and held it in her mind, twisting it, bending it to her will. As the weapon came to life in her hands, it was not a sword, but the finest bow she had ever held. It fit perfectly in her hand as no human-made bow ever would, and she knew that there was a matching quiver full of arrows at her back.

She reached for an arrow and it was there. Zedd began to laugh at her foolish attempt at defiance, but the first sound had barely left his mouth when she grabbed an arrow, nocked it, and fired. She was drawing back the string to fire the second arrow as the first struck Zedd square in the middle of his metal-covered forehead. The second one would have sunk deep into his eye socket, had he not plucked it out of the air before it could strike. His magic froze her in place as she pulled the bowstring taut to fire the third arrow.

He took his time meandering over to where she stood frozen, ready to kill him to save herself. She could all but feel his dark eyes roaming over her as he leered.

"You have fire in your heart," he murmured in a tone that she realized was meant to be appreciative. It made her want to drop her bow and claw his eyes out, but she could do nothing but watch. "But your fire is only a tiny spark." Kimberly thought about the fierce, fiery fury that she carried inside of her, and wondered if Zedd realized it was there. "I can make you _burn_," he said, and she knew he did not know.

If only she knew how to use it, she might be able to stop him. But she'd spent so long trying to hide it and contain it and keep anyone from knowing it was there that she was no longer sure she could even unleash it at all.

Oblivious to her thoughts, Zedd went on, "You have more power than any mortal I have ever met. Let me show you how to use it." He touched the bow in her hands gently. It became suffused with light and disappeared. Pain erupted behind her eyes as Zedd ruthlessly and effortlessly undid her magic.

And that was only the beginning.

Zedd's magic rushed in around her, probing violently at the edges of her psyche, more frightening even than the fiery beast had been. Where that creature had been all mindless, directionless anger, Zedd was entirely focused on achieving his goals. And right now, Zedd's goal was to subdue her and claim her. She tried not to think about what that meant.

Instead she focused on keeping him out of her mind. She hadn't been able to stop him from controlling her body before; she had to stop him from gaining control of her mind now, or she knew she would lose everything and there would be no going back. It was a struggle not to panic, when she knew everything was on the line, but she tried to calm herself and remember what Dulcea had taught her. Calm the mind, draw in the energy, and put a wall between herself and her enemy.

She could almost see it: a wall made of shining pink stones, like a castle's outer wall, thick and solid and strong enough to withstand any siege.

But she didn't know enough about what she was doing. Almost as soon as she had erected it, it became obvious that her wall would not hold against his assault. In her mind's eye, she watched it crumble as Zedd's magic seeped through cracks too small to see or feel. He'd said she had power, raw power, more than anyone he'd ever met before. But she saw now that sheer power meant nothing in hands as untaught and unskilled as hers. She might as well have had no magic for all the good it did her.

He took control of her body again, and this time she knew the spell went much deeper than that. This spell was intended to be permanent, to bind her to him on every level, solidifying and strengthening his hold. Forever. But when he finished that and went for her mind again… this time instead of a wall, she pictured her magic forming a crystal: a flawless, faceted diamond, and her standing at the center of it. Its form came to her almost without conscious thought, like a deeply buried instinct. It felt somehow _right._

Wherever the idea had come from, she knew that no matter how hard he assailed that crystal, it would not break. And no matter how hard he searched for a way in, he would not find it. There was no way for her to escape… but there was no way for him to get in, either.

He might have control over her body, but he would never, ever have control of _her_.

 

 

It was hard to tell how long he'd been waiting when a man clad head to toe in silver armor came to retrieve him. Jason was mildly surprised when the door opened and he found himself face to face with a man in full plate armor, but he did not have much time to think about it. One moment he was blinking in surprise as the door to his cell slammed open and painfully bright firelight poured in, and the next moment his wrists were shackled and he was being hauled roughly out of the cell by another length of chain that was attached to the shackles. He stumbled into the hall way outside and slammed into the wall immediately across from his cell. The armored man did not wait for him to recover, but strode down the hall and pulled Jason with him.

Dazed, it was all Jason could do to keep his feet as he staggered after his captor. As they walked his eyes adjusted to the light and he began to wonder who the man in the armor was, because not only was he incredibly strong, but the shackles had appeared around Jason's wrists as if by magic. He wondered if all of Lord Zedd's servants had magic at their disposal, or if it was just this one. If they all did, his friends were going to be in real trouble, because he did not doubt at all that Tommy, Kimberly, and the others would try to rescue him and Dulcea.

It was just a matter of stalling his captors until his friends showed up.

He could handle that.

The armored man led him through a series of doors and halls until he was thoroughly lost, before finally pulling him into a larger room. This room was high-ceilinged and roughly circular, and was lit by a ring of torches set in sconces on the walls. It was filled with strange devices that Jason did not recognize, though he did not need to know their names to see from the spikes, chains, and blades that adorned them that they were designed to cause pain. He was now standing in a torture chamber.

For the moment his captor did not pay any attention to the devices arrayed around the chamber. Instead he led Jason to the center of the room, where he attached the lead chain to a metal ring set into the floor. Jason said nothing, only watched. He had a feeling that angry bluster and demands to be set free would get him nowhere, and he didn't think this guy would tell him what was going on even if he asked nicely.

Two could play at that game. If the man in the armor wasn't going to volunteer anything, then Jason wasn't, either.

He braced himself, expecting an attack of some sort. And yet, if they planned to hurt him, why hadn't they bothered stripping him of his armor first? There was too much about this situation that he didn't understand, but he was firm in his resolve to withstand whatever Zedd planned to throw at him… right up until the moment Kimberly walked into the room. She was almost unrecognizable with that much makeup on her face and wearing that old fashioned and overly-ornate dress. She almost never wore such dark, earthy colors; he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her look like that before.

He couldn't help it. "Kimberly?"

She paid no attention to him. Her empty eyes were only for the man in the silver armor.

He tried again. "Kim!"

As if she had not even heard him speak, she walked over to the armored man and reverently removed his helmet. All the while, her expression never altered from its serene neutrality.

The sight of her so dutifully, almost happily, serving his captor made Jason's blood run cold. It had not even occurred to him until that very moment that his friends might not be able to save him because they might already have been captured as well. And to see Kimberly so clearly and completely _beaten_…

"What did you do to her?" So much for his plans to keep his mouth shut and make no demands. He couldn't help himself; the instinct to save and protect his lifelong friend was too strong.

The man in the armor turned to look at him finally, and Jason winced. Did he really have no skin, and metal set into his face, or was that just some trick of magic to make him look more intimidating? Jason had no idea. Either way, the effect was definitely intimidating. He didn't need to be told that that face belonged to none other than Lord Zedd.

He couldn't see Zedd's smile behind that metal face mask, but somehow it seemed to him that the other man was smiling. "I simply showed her the error of her previous allegiance," he said in an off-handed way, as if it should have been obvious. Jason's hands clenched into angry fists. If Tommy or Billy or any of the others had come to harm…

There would be nothing he could do. He was not foolish enough to think otherwise. Right now, he was at Zedd's mercy, just as much as his friends must have been. And if Zedd had been able to beat Kimberly, which experience told Jason could have been no easy feat, then what hope could he possibly have of surviving whatever Zedd had in store for him?

He'd been expecting some sort of physical attack, given the nature of the chamber in which he now found himself, but Zedd was not interested in assaulting him. Instead, Zedd assailed him with magic. At first, he didn't even realize what it was. It was slippery and sneaky, and it crept into his mind and body almost before he realized what was happening: it felt as if someone else was living in his head. And all at once he realized that he had trained at combat all his life, but he had not the slightest idea of how to defend himself from magic.

_Get out!_ he thought ferociously, but the only response he got was the imagined sound of laughter. The feelings of pain and violation intensified; Jason fell hard to his knees.

"Fool," Zedd murmured. "You can't stop me. You don't even have any real magic." Jason got the strangest impression that Zedd had burrowed into his head and was looking at all the separate parts of him. "All you've got is this tiny seed of power that means you can touch that damned sword, and while I must admit I am curious as to how it happened, that power isn't going to do you any good against me."

Jason knew he was running out of options, so he tried a different tactic. He gave what he hoped was a mental shove in Zedd's direction, and then ignored him completely. "Kimberly! Snap out of it, Kim!"

Zedd laughed for real this time. "She can't, even if she wants to. She thinks she's clever, you see. She's cut herself off so I can't make her love me and I can't use her magic to bind her to me… but she can't get _out_, either. Solved my problem for me, really."

Jason couldn't believe it, didn't _want_ to believe it. It had taken a lot more than one sorceress's power to get Kimberly to even consider doing something she didn't want to do – and even then, she'd had her own way in the end. "You're lying."

"The proof is standing right in front of you. True, she's not here in spirit, but her lovely body is almost as good."

The very sound of Zedd's voice was beginning to disgust Jason. He struggled and finally managed to climb to his feet again. "You may have me chained up here in your dungeon and Kimberly trapped by your magic, but Tommy is going to destroy you," he said with perfect confidence. "And the only thing I'm going to regret when he does is that I didn't get to kill you myself."

Zedd was unfazed.

"Let me out of these chains and get out of my head," he went on, anger goading him onward, "Give me a sword. Fight me without hiding behind your magic, and we'll see who wins."

To his surprise, Zedd's response was to gesture casually with one hand. The lead chain and shackles disappeared. Another gesture and a sword appeared on the floor in front of him. At the same time, the pain and violation he'd been feeling suddenly subsided.

Disbelieving, Jason simply stared at the sword.

"Take it," Zedd said boredly. "Best me, if you can."

Jason's gaze flicked from Zedd to Kimberly. The urge to grab the sword and try to lop Zedd's head off while he had the chance was incredibly strong. Blind anger pushed him toward that decision, too. If he was fast enough and strong enough, he could end it all, here and now. It could be over just that easily.

But it was too easy.

It was difficult to rein in his fury, to focus and try to see past the obvious trap. He knew that as soon as he grabbed the sword and made a move, Zedd would act, too, and probably with magic in spite of his promise.

He would only have one chance, and he would have to do something completely unexpected if he wanted to get a real opening. So he lunged forward, grabbed the sword and, ignoring the way it seemed to burn his hands through his gauntlets, he turned and hurled himself at Kimberly. He didn't intend to truly harm her, just to throw Zedd off guard, but he had to make it _look_ real.

Kimberly made no attempt to avoid the attack. The blade was a hair's breadth from her neck before Zedd stopped him. He crashed to the ground as if his arms and legs weighed a thousand pounds. He saw stars and struggled to breathe. Zedd's fury was a palpable thing.

He hadn't been quite fast enough, and now he was going to pay for it.

Suddenly, Zedd was in his head again. And this time it was even more painful than before. Anger permeated everything, every corner of his mind as Zedd seemed to tear him apart from the inside out. Jason tried to resist the intrusion, but he had not the slightest idea how. Nothing he did seemed to have any effect. All he could do was stay there on his hands and knees, trembling. It felt as if Zedd had managed to seize control of his mind and heart and was now leafing through his memories and feelings like the pages of a book.

"Now you've gone and made me angry, boy. You really should have known better after seeing what happened to your girlfriend! Ah, now _this_ is interesting," Zedd rumbled. Through some trick of powerful magic, he pulled forth a series of memories, linked together as if by a thread. Jason staggered forward as if the memories had been physically pulled from his body and almost fell on his face.

"You have no wish to be king," Zedd went on, his tone not quite mocking. "And yet you crave power."

Jason wanted to protest, and yet at the same time he had to admit it was true. There would be no point in trying to deny it. He _didn't_ want to be King, and he never really had. But he'd been willing to come all this way to find a sword that might grant him some sort of supernatural power.

"Let's see what else we can find lurking around here, shall we?" Zedd asked. "You're very good at hiding things even from yourself, you know. But you can't hide from me." He paused, and Jason thought he might be sick. Then: "This should do nicely."

Jason didn't have time to ask what he meant by that. He simply stopped being in Zedd's torture chamber, and was once again somewhere else, somewhere he had been before, a long time ago. Consciousness faded into the blur of time and emotion.

_–Trini, staring at him with eyes full of hurt and fury. Staring at him for half a heartbeat before turning and storming out of the room that had once been their sanctuary. And him, just standing there, shamefaced and stupefied, painfully aware that he should not have asked her for a kiss as forfeit for losing their sparring match. Him, realizing too late that he should have just asked for permission or told her what he wanted, anything but forcing her hand that way. Him, knowing it was already too late to undo the damage. Despairing, because his foolishness might cost him his best friend–_

The memory took his breath away, and almost that quickly it was gone. It hurt to relive it; the shame burned through him all over again, as fresh as if the events from his memory had only just occurred. It was the stupidest thing he had ever done, and he preferred to pretend it had never happened. That Zedd could simply bring it forth and use it to hurt him, as if it were nothing but another curiosity, enraged him.

He had neither the time nor energy to express his rage, because Zedd selected another painful memory almost as soon as he had discarded the first.

Even without closing his eyes, he saw –

_–Li, lying dead in the simple wooden coffin. Jason, staring, not understanding. Li was Trini's uncle, teacher, and mentor, and he was teacher and mentor to Jason, too. Jason couldn't comprehend a world without Master Li in it, and now he was facing just that. Bewildered, looking at Trini, knowing she needed _something_ from him, but having less than no idea how to help–_

Abruptly, he was back in the present, chained and standing again and gasping in Zedd's dungeon, reeling from the force of the memory. Was even that much real? He couldn't be sure. And then –

_–He was back home, staring Kimberly down, overwhelmed with fury. Not only had she used Trini for her own schemes, she'd put the entire kingdom's safety and future at risk, just because of her idiotic infatuation with Tommy Oliver. And here he was, all but handed the opportunity to punish her for it. With a sword in his hand and no one to see, he could end her foolishness once and for all. He could be King, and save the realm from this madness–_

When he came back to himself that time, he was on his hands and knees, staring hollowly at the stone floor beneath him. His mind reeled wildly and the world seemed to spin violently around him. He groaned as pain blazed through him again, this time without the onslaught of another memory. It was all he could do not to plead with Zedd to make it stop.

But somehow he knew that even if he begged, Zedd wasn't done yet.

_–Standing on the tourney field, watching Zack bleed while the healers did what they could. Horror, knowing _he _had hurt his sworn brother, no matter that it had been an accident. Zack's eyes, as full of faith as pain, telling him _I forgive you _and _it wasn't your fault_ without words. But it was his fault and he couldn't forgive himself–_

There was no time even to breathe _–_

_–A lost and frightened little boy, left with indifferent servants while his parents were always, always away. They were always too busy for him. They were never there. And yet they expected him to be strong, because he would one day be a knight and must live up to his family's name and reputation. It didn't matter how scared and alone he was. Only their name mattered. Only their reputation–_

And Kimberly just stood there, watching. The memories came on faster now, dizzying in their intensity.

_–Arriving too late to protect Billy from the young squires that had seen fit to beat him to a pulp for aspiring to be an archivist instead of a warrior. Seeing his friend beaten and bloody, knowing if he'd been on time he could have put a stop to it. But he hadn't known what Billy wanted to talk to him about, and he hadn't thought it was that important, and he hadn't bothered to be on time. And this was what it got him. "Always protecting everyone, Jason, except when it really counts."–_

_–Watching Zack laugh derisively, the sound cutting him to the core. "You're the only one that was ever foolish enough to think we could be brothers." –_

_–Trini, standing before a priest, with another man beside her. Knowing that all he truly wanted in the world was to be with her, and marrying someone else anyway. "How could I possibly marry a man that can't even admit he loves me?"–_

_–Kimberly, promising him a throne and then handing it to Tommy instead. "You tried so hard, Jase, I know you did. But you were never worthy." –_

_–Tommy laughing, his shadow forming a dark dragon at his back. Jason hauling himself out of rushing white waters that sought to drown him, wondering why he even bothered, because there was no one to help him and no one to miss him, and there never would be–_

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the memories that Zedd chose to pull forth. They were scattered across the full span of his life, involving different times and places and people. The only things they had in common were shades of pain and shame and anger.

He wasn't even sure anymore that all of them were real memories. He had the strangest sense that some of them were false, though he couldn't decide exactly which ones might be the real ones and which ones the false.

"I can make it stop," Zedd promised. Jason was vaguely aware that, for the moment at least, the onslaught had ceased. "I can make it so you never have to face these memories – or the people that hurt you this way – ever again."

It sounded tempting. After everything Zedd had done to him today, the prospect of surcease was too tempting by half. He knew it couldn't be true, that it was just another ploy… but he _wanted_ it to be true. He wanted nothing more than to accept Zedd's offer and let everything else fade away into blissfully painless nothing.

Suddenly he felt Dulcea's presence, like a cool breeze on a scorching hot day. Her power rippled around him, cutting him off from the effects of Zedd's power. It was much the same as when she'd come out of nowhere to save him from Scorpina's poison so long ago, and he knew she was the only thing standing between him and the full strength of Zedd's evil magic. For the moment, at least, he could breathe and recover, though he had no idea how long she could protect him.

He didn't need to ask to know that when her strength failed, he would be lost.

 

 

Dulcea knew well the risk she had taken in intervening. She knew Jason's plight was merely bait in a trap, and she had taken that bait anyway. She could not stand idly by and feel Jason's life force begin to ebb dangerously, the way she had done with Kimberly. She could not let the pain of that sudden and shocking loss overwhelm her. Kimberly was beyond her reach now, but Jason was not.

They were too close to reaching their goal now; as far as she was concerned, there was no going back. If she had to sacrifice her own life in addition to Kimberly's, then at least she could die reasonably certain that Jason would recover the Sword of Power and see her life's work completed. The thought of an eternal rest, at long last, was oddly comforting as she waited for Zedd's wrath to come down upon her.

He had stripped her of the crystal that was Zordon's prison when he first threw her into this cell and chained her up, but he had not been able to penetrate her defenses. But now she had taken the bait and given him an opening. She did not doubt that he would seize the opportunity she had provided.

She was now only half aware of what was going on around her physical body. Too much of her was invested in protecting Jason to pay much attention to her own condition and safety. Even so, the sudden, unyielding dark _presence_ in her cell drew her at least partly back to herself.

Zedd stood before her in all his horrific glory, unchanged since the last time she had been unfortunate enough to see him. "You would have done better to leave well enough alone and focus on saving your own sorry hide, Dulcea," he told her. "If you won't learn not to meddle in the affairs of your betters, then I'll have to kill you for good this time."

Dulcea cautiously relaxed the protective spell she had woven over Jason. She sensed no ill effects, so she withdrew the spell altogether. She lifted her head to glare defiantly at Zedd. She might be in chains and nearing the end of her reserves of energy, but she was not entirely without resources. And with Jason safe, at least for the moment, she would not let him destroy her without a fight.

"You can try," she said calmly, as if she were not his prisoner. As if he had not confiscated Zordon's crystal prison from her, destroyed one of her most promising pupils, and very nearly robbed her of all hope. "But I will not die easily."

"Your kind never do," Zedd agreed, "but removing them from the world is an unpleasant but necessary undertaking."

Her defenses were firmly in place before he essayed his first attack. The magic barb glanced aside harmlessly, fizzling into nothing. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have riposted with her own magical attack, but today she was taking no chances. The opening was too easy, too obvious. Zedd was up to something. She would only attack when she had determined what he was plotting. She couldn't risk failing before Jason had a chance to recover.

Instead she had to focus on the small chance she had of besting Zedd once and for all.

"I should be the one saying that," she said, hoping to provoke Zedd into acting rashly. "After all, it is your kind that pollutes this world and brings destruction with them wherever they go."

Zedd laughed aloud at that, but his simultaneous attack was no less potent for it. Dulcea's magical shield rippled warningly under the onslaught, but did not fail.

"It will take more than that to defeat me," she said quietly. "You conquered Kimberly easily, but I do not think that such an impressive feat. She had power, yes, but she had only the skill of a novice." Finally, she essayed an attack, a carefully aimed magical barb that was as finely tuned and subtle as she could make it. She aimed not for Zedd himself, but for the thrice-cursed staff that helped him generate so much power. If she could disarm him, or better yet destroy the thing altogether, she would stand a much better chance of winning this battle.

Zedd either did not realize what she was doing until it was too late, or he allowed her attack to get through just to prove his own power. Her attack, potent though she had thought it to be, did little in the way of breaking his hold on the staff. Little, that was, beyond giving Dulcea a look into exactly how he'd managed to capture Kimberly and take her life – or rather, showing her that he hadn't taken Kimberly's life at all, but merely trapped her inside herself.

In the instant when her magic melded with Zedd's, Dulcea could follow the threads of his spell into Kimberly's mind, and what she saw there horrified her. By some instinct, Kimberly had used one of the most ancient and powerful spells to seal herself away from Zedd's influence. What Zedd controlled now was not Kimberly, it was merely her physical shell. The real Kimberly was trapped – _alive_ – inside an impenetrable magic structure in her own mind.

"No," Dulcea gasped, not wanting to believe what her own power was telling her. "It can't be."

"Did you truly think I would kill her?" Zedd asked. "She is far too valuable for that, and you know it, for all that you abandoned her in the hopes of saving Jason instead."

She barely heard him taunting her. If Kimberly had truly done what it looked like she had done, she was as good as dead. She was lost forever, not just to Zedd but to those that loved her. Dulcea's resolve crumbled momentarily as shock overtook her, and Zedd chose that moment to strike. He tore through her defenses as if they were paper and speared her mind directly with dark magic. She did not cry out, but bore the pain and the taint in silence.

Again and again he stabbed at her, and each time she merely allowed it. She could not bring herself to fight back, knowing what Kimberly had done in desperation, and knowing that she had stood by and allowed it to happen. That she'd had no way of knowing what had happened, only that Kimberly's life force had disappeared suddenly and completely, a condition normally indicative of death, brought little solace. She should have tried harder to protect the others, instead of focusing all of her attention and all of her protection on Jason.

She had allowed the larger mission to overshadow the smaller ones.

_Zordon, I would not ever wish you were here with me right now, enduring what I must endure,_ she thought sadly, thinking too of how Zedd had taken the crystal prison from her, and wondering if her friend and mentor still lived. _But I wish you could help me. For I do not see a way out of this. The only road forward I see is defeat._

And then suddenly, Zedd's onslaught ceased. Dulcea sagged against her chains and sucked in deep breaths of air, momentarily shocked to find the agony at an end. She reached out with her magic and felt for Jason's life force, and found that it was weak but untainted by further torture from Zedd. It was a long time before she realized that Zedd was really gone and she was truly alone, but instinct told her that outside the castle's walls, the sun had begun to creep over the horizon.


	36. Breaking Point

The look on Tommy's face when he realized Kimberly was truly gone was enough to break Katherine's heart. She was well aware that he and Kimberly had not been on the best of terms lately, but they had been making steady progress and she was sure they would have reconciled soon. It was a huge blow to lose Kimberly now, so soon after losing Jason and Dulcea. Watching Tommy now, she could tell he was torn between utter despair and rash determination.

As far as she was concerned, both were equally dangerous. Night was falling fast. They would have to come up with a plan and act quickly, or they would lose whatever meager protection the darkness might offer them. And yet at the same time they could not risk everything on a slapdash rescue attempt with a high chance of failure, not with the stakes so very high.

_Come on, Kat, think!_ she thought furiously. _You can't have read all those books in the archives and learned nothing useful!_ But moment after moment slipped by and she was no closer to a workable idea than she had been before. She sat uselessly off by herself, huddled under a tree while Rocky and Adam went off in search of a way into the castle and Billy and Aisha alternately consoled and consulted with Tommy. She could have joined them, she knew, but she had a feeling she would only get in their way.

Kimberly and Jason had been her staunchest supporters, and Dulcea had been her protector. There had to be something she could do for them now that they were the ones in need of saving.

The answer eluded her until Rocky and Adam returned to make their report. By then it was fully dark, and the report was just as dismal.

"The only way in's through the sewer," Rocky announced. "It's half in the moat as it is, and if we'd had any more rain today it would be underwater. We got the metal grate off it, but it's way too small for us to fit through."

Aisha fixed him with a glare that managed to be stern even in the near-total darkness. "For all of us?" she asked sweetly. "Or just for you overly large men and your big, bulky armor?"

"You might be able to do it," Adam allowed, "but we couldn't tell if there's actually a way in. It might be blocked somewhere further in."

"And there is no way you're going in alone," Rocky added.

"Why not? All I have to do is-"

"Get in, avoid Zedd and his henchmen, and find a way to open the gates and lower the drawbridge," Rocky cut in. "So, in other words: no. You are not going alone."

Kat watched all of this in silence until Tommy stepped in to say, "I agree. It's too risky."

And then Kat found herself saying, "She doesn't have to go alone. I volunteer. I'll go with her." She was taller than Aisha, but just as slim. She ought to be able to fit anywhere Aisha could. Her thoughts raced ahead, suddenly certain that this was what she needed to do. She might not be a trained fighter, but she could serve as a distraction in a pinch, giving Aisha the time she would need to take care of the drawbridge.

"There," Aisha said with finality. "Kat and I will try to sneak in through the sewer. While we're doing that, you boys see about making some ladders. Maybe you can get over the wall." They all heard what she did not say: if she and Kat didn't make it, the others would still have to try to find a way in.

However reluctantly, everyone was soon in agreement. They were running out of time, and they had no better options.

While Billy and Tommy began scouting for ladder-making supplies, Rocky and Adam showed Kat and Aisha where they had found the sewer entrance. It was well hidden toward the back of the castle, and Rocky was right: if there had been just a bit more rain in the past few days it would have been completely underwater. It seemed amazing to Kat that he and Adam had seen it at all.

As Aisha had predicted, it looked like she and Kat would be able to squeeze through the opening.

"I still don't like this," Rocky protested after both Kat and Aisha had demonstrated that they could fit into the tiny tunnel.

"You don't have to like it," Aisha told him. She had been standing knee-deep in water, about to enter the sewer tunnel again, but instead she turned and went to stand in front of him. Kat felt a pang of envy as she watched him wrap his arms around Aisha and pull her close against him. "If I never see you again… well, I'm only sorry it ended like this," she confessed, and pulled him down and kissed him so soundly it made Kat blush to watch.

She had to turn away while Aisha said her farewells to Adam, too; somehow she had not realized that the three of them were romantically entangled, and yet now that she knew it seemed as if it should have been obvious all along. While she was busy not watching her three companions, Kat wondered if maybe she ought to have said good-bye to Billy. And then Aisha splashed into the water next to her again and there was no more time for regrets.

They wormed and wriggled their way into the tunnel on their bellies, making their way through sluiceways not meant to accommodate a full grown human, and doing their best to keep their heads above the water. Inside, it was dark and slimy. Kat did not want to think about what might be in that water if it were indeed a sewer line and not merely attached to a storm drain. For a while, it felt as if the whole world was pressing down on them, threatening to push them into the water and drown them. It was pitch dark and wet and freezing in the tunnel, and only grew more so the deeper they crawled, but Kat followed where Aisha led. No matter how desperately she wanted to go back, there was no way to turn around. Given the option to go forward or give up and die in that horrible tunnel, Kat chose to go forward.

Every second she spent in that tunnel terrified her. As the slow, torturous journey went on, it seemed as if Zedd ought to be able to hear her heart's frantic pounding through the castle walls, but no enemies showed themselves. So she kept silent and followed along and nearly screamed in terror when she ran right into Aisha, who had suddenly stopped moving.

"Look," Aisha hissed.

At first Kat wasn't sure what she meant. And then she realized that the darkness had lifted enough that she could see Aisha, and that there was enough space over their heads that they could kneel without hitting the ceiling. She followed Aisha's gaze upward and realized she could faintly see stars and clouds past a metal grate far above them. They were sitting roughly eight feet below a large storm drain.

"Do you think we can get out through there?" she asked. She spoke as quietly as she could, but her voice still sounded thunderous.

"Only one way to find out," Aisha muttered grimly.

It was a tight fit, and Kat was not quite sure how they managed it, but somehow Aisha got her standing upright in the cramped drain. It was barely wide enough to fit her shoulders, and then the next thing she knew, Aisha had clambered up past her and hauled herself up to stand on Kat's shoulders. If Kat stood on her tip-toes, Aisha reported that she could just barely reach the grate that covered the drain.

"Can you open it?" Kat asked, huffing from the strain of keeping her balance with Aisha perched on her shoulders. Even with the drain's walls to lean on it was a difficult feat.

"No," Aisha admitted after a moment. "It's too heavy for me to lift, and anyway I'm too short to lift it far enough."

"What are we going to do?" She dreaded the thought of crawling back out through the sewer, but she knew that they were risking discovery every moment they spent in that drain. She couldn't see how they could possibly hope to get into the castle that way, but dreaded the thought of going back the way they had come.

"We just need some leverage," Aisha muttered. Grabbing hold of the grate, she pulled her legs up to wedge herself into the drain. Left with nothing to do, Kat felt even more useless than before. Aisha fiddled with something, and suddenly her damp traveling clothes were transformed into yellow armor; Katherine knew she was using her magic ring, but the transformation was amazing nonetheless.

Aisha stifled a yelp of surprise. Along with the armor, a staff of sorts had appeared in her hand, glowing faintly golden in the dark. And then Aisha said, "Well, then. I think I just found our way out of here."

It took some time and a great deal of effort, but she managed to use the staff – which was more like a crowbar – to pry the grate loose. It seemed to Kat that the thing made a terrible noise as Aisha gently moved it out of the way and cautiously made her way out of the drain. How had they not yet been discovered? Katherine waited, trying not to panic, for an eternity before Aisha peered over the edge of the drain again. _Please don't leave me down here,_ she thought fervently, even though she knew it was absurd to think Aisha would just abandon her.

"We're in the corner of a courtyard," Aisha whispered. "There's nobody around. I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't think we have much time. Come on."

And with that, she lowered a length of golden rope into the drain. Katherine tied it under her arms and half-climbed out of the drain as Aisha helped pull her up. She would never have been able to make it without Aisha hauling on the rope, and emerged from the drain with a healthy appreciation of just how strong Aisha was.

"Thank you," Kat gasped, "for not leaving me down there."

Almost as soon as Aisha had untied the rope from around her, it turned into a spear. "You're welcome." She paused for a bit to let Kat catch her breath, observing, "This magic thing is entirely too handy. Now come on, let's find the gatehouse."

They stuck to the deepest shadows where they could, but they saw no one as they made their way around the courtyard. They had to loop around the enormous keep to find the gatehouse. With the keep looming over them from behind and the wide, open expanse of the courtyard in front of them, Kat was sure they would be seen and killed before they could reach their goal at all. But she had little choice but to follow Aisha toward the gatehouse.

She could practically feel archers on the walls watching them, but somehow they made it to the gatehouse without being killed. _Where are the guards?_ she thought. The evidence had suggested that Jason and Dulcea were captured by a relatively large force of men, but there was no sign at all of those men now. What had happened? It all seemed very wrong and very suspicious, but she couldn't even mention her suspicions to Aisha without worrying that they might be overheard. As she followed Aisha to the gatehouse door, she was starting to think that there were no guards at all and the evidence they had seen had simply been some trick of Zedd's.

She was wrong about that; the gatehouse was crowded with men in strange looking armor, clearly the missing guards. There were at least a dozen of them, causing Katherine to momentarily panic, but they were not expecting an attack and the gatehouse was not designed to be defended from behind. Aisha simply threw the door open, took a quick look at what was within, and charged in with her spear.

"Kat," she shouted over the sudden din, "find the gate mechanism! Get the drawbridge down and raise the portcullis!"

It occurred to her abruptly just how foolish she had been to volunteer to come with Aisha, but it was too late to go back now. She ducked underneath the spear as Aisha swung it into two of Zedd's strange soldiers, grabbed hold of a sword that someone had dropped, and rushed deeper into the gatehouse. She plastered herself flat against the wall as a door swung open to send more guards flooding into the room. Hardly believing her luck – and hoping Aisha's magic armor and spear would keep her safe – Kat crept through the door unnoticed by the guards.

Most of the guards were now in the gatehouse proper, trying to figure out what was going on or trying to defeat Aisha, but they had left two men behind to supervise an enormous mechanism that Kat realized must control the drawbridge and the portcullis. She had only a moment to dispatch them before they would realize she was there and it would be too late.

She was not a trained warrior. She was definitely not a killer, or at least she had never considered herself to be a killer. But one of the guards had his back to her and the other had not yet noticed her. It was almost easy for her to put her stolen sword through a gap at the neck of the first man's armor and draw it back out, covered in dark blood while he fell to the ground and died. The second guard was less easy to kill, because he knew she was there and had watched his companion die at her hands.

He drew his sword and, abandoning his post at the machine, came at her. Suddenly and forcibly reminded of just how unsuited she was for this, Kat tried her best not to do what she most wanted to do, which was shriek and run. She reminded herself that Jason, Kimberly, and Dulcea were counting on her, but that could not make her into a skilled warrior, calm in the face of danger. Worse, it could not give her better spatial awareness.

It didn't take the remaining guard long to back her into a corner. She couldn't go back the way she had come, so she dove to one side and came up against a wall. Through the still open door she could hear the sounds of Aisha struggling with the other guards, but she could no longer see what was going on. It was almost painful not to know how Aisha was faring, or to be able to call on her for help.

Kat knew she had to face this trouble on her own, and that she probably had only a few more seconds in which to act, so she put her sword between herself and the last guard and swore that if she died she would at least take him to the afterlife with her. The guard said nothing; he merely swung his own blade at her, hard enough to decapitate her if she had not ducked in time. The tip of his blade caught in the wall, which was stone covered in a thick layer of plaster. The plaster fragmented on impact, but caught at his sword and held it just long enough.

Fumbling with her own blade, Kat ducked under his arm and smashed him on the head with the hilt of her sword. Her best effort had barely made a dent in his helmet. She had been hoping against hope to avoid killing him, but now she knew she would have no choice. If she couldn't render him unconscious, then her options were likely to be killed or taken prisoner. And she had a feeling she knew which this man would prefer.

But instead of whirling around and coming after her, the man staggered. Kat took advantage and bashed him over the head again and again until he collapsed. She could scarcely believe what had just happened. She was an archivist, a scholar, not a fighter! And yet the proof was right there.

Suddenly she recalled exactly why she had been fighting with those two men, and hurried over to the gate mechanism. She resisted the urge to check on Aisha, knowing that right now it was more important to get the gate open and let their reinforcements in. In a fight like that, she wouldn't be much help to Aisha anyway. Aisha needed room to use her spear. The last thing she needed was for Kat to get in the way.

It took several minutes and many, many tries, but finally she found the right lever and the mechanism gave way. The rumbling of the ground and the sound of chains moving told her that the drawbridge was going down. The sudden ring of metal told her the portcullis had also been withdrawn. She was shaking from equal parts shock and relief and, hoping that Tommy and the others were ready to swoop in for another attack, she took up her sword again and went to see if she could help Aisha.

 

 

Cut off from all sense of time or space, Kimberly drifted. Her awareness seemed entirely limited to the crystallized sanctuary she had created for herself; she did not even have any idea what her own body was doing. It was as if she had become caught in a dream and could not wake up. She pressed her fingers gently to the pink-tinted crystal and felt the rush of energy, but all of her attempts at freeing herself proved fruitless. Her prison might protect her from Zedd's magic, but it was implacable, and it would not let her out any more than it would let him in.

With a sigh, she sat down near the center of the crystal. "I really should have imagined a more comfortable haven," she muttered. "What am I gonna do?"

"That is a very good question, my dear," Bryndis Hart said. To her immense surprise, Kimberly found that she was not as alone in her prison as she had thought. "You did a fine job building this thing," the First Queen went on, "but you really ought to have thought about getting out of it first."

"I know," Kimberly groaned. "But I had to stop Zedd. I couldn't let him take me over!"

"I know," Bryndis said, her voice gentling. "You were in an impossible situation. There was no way out. I know." Somehow her words did not make Kimberly feel better.

"How are you even here?" she asked. "I could've really used your help –"

"I have always been here, Kimberly," Bryndis answered tartly. "Ever since you married Tommy and the spell's conditions were met and your magic was at long last unleashed. All you had to do to reach me was to come here and listen, but I suppose no one taught you to do that." She sighed. "Just as no one taught you _not_ to do this."

Kimberly stared down at her lap, where her hands were furiously wringing the fabric of her skirt. No one had taught her anything, but she suspected Bryndis knew that, too. Bryndis rested a hand on her shoulder; she felt the gentle pressure in spite of the fact that none of it was real. "I came here for a reason," she murmured.

"Of course you did," Kimberly snapped. "You always show up for a reason, only you never tell me what that reason is or what I really need to know! I just have to figure it out for myself, and then you stand around and sneer when I mess things up. Do you have any idea how much trouble all of this magic nonsense has caused for me and Tommy? Not to mention Jason and the others…"

"Of course I do," Bryndis said. "I am aware of much that you see. As I said, I am always here. If you would come to _me_, I could tell you a lot more about your magic and your destiny. But it requires a great deal of power for me to reach out to you, and I must borrow that power from you because my own power is very limited now. You may not be aware of it, but you are _very_ possessive of your power, Kimberly." She sounded almost amused, as if she were talking with a favored grand-daughter, instead of the angry and recalcitrant heir to her power and her kingdom.

"And that's why you only show up when I'm sleeping, or have fainted," Kimberly surmised sourly.

"Quite."

Kimberly wondered if it would do any lasting harm to start tearing her imaginary hair out.

"Now if you will stop sulking," Bryndis went on, as if Kimberly were not at the end of her rope, "I will teach you what I can, and we will see if we can get you out of this mess."

The last thing Kimberly wanted to do at this point was cooperate with anyone, but the lure of learning more about her magic and getting out of that stupid diamond was enough to make her reconsider. "You can teach me?"

Bryndis smiled. "Of course I can. I always could, from the moment you came into your magic. And if you would've been willing to let me have enough power to communicate with you more fully, I would have begun to teach you long ago."

Kimberly disliked the implication that this was all her own fault, but she kept her mouth shut in the interest of maybe actually managing to escape from this self-made prison. "All right. Teach me."

"You possess great power," Bryndis began. "So much that it is evident even to the people around you who do not possess any magical gifts. That makes your gift especially dangerous, but there is a reason for it." Kimberly looked at her, brow furrowing in confusion. She wasn't sure she knew what the First Queen was getting at.

"Magic is hereditary," Bryndis went on. That much Kimberly had guessed, since her mother and grandmother and great-grandmother all the way back to Bryndis Hart herself had held magic power. "At least, it is hereditary under ordinary circumstances. Your power, on the other hand, is both hereditary and cumulative. That is why I can appear to you here. What you see here and now is not _me_. In reality, I am dead and gone. This is the imprint of me that was left in the magic that has been handed down from mother to daughter for generations and comes now to you."

"That is actually really creepy," Kimberly muttered. "Wait…"

"Every Queen has left her own imprint and her own power, adding them to the whole," Bryndis confirmed, without Kimberly needing to actually ask the question. "The power that you possess is yours, and your mother's, and her mother's, and _mine_. Every Queen who has ever lived and ruled and died in the last thousand years exists still within you, and lends her power to yours. And you were uncommonly powerful all on your own, so you can imagine what this accumulation of power really means."

"That's why Rita wanted me. And it's why Zedd was so determined to control me."

"Exactly. And it's why, even though this condition is supposed to be permanent, you may be able to escape it."

"This condition," Kimberly mused. That was a funny way to put it.

"Didn't you wonder why this exact form sprang into your mind? Why it came so easily to you to seal yourself into a gem?"

"I didn't question it," she admitted. "But now you're making me wonder. What are you getting at?"

"You've seen it before," Bryndis assured her. "Just _think_. The form of that spell is in your blood. You didn't create it, you _remembered_ it."

Kimberly shook her head. "It's always riddles with you. Can't you just speak plainly for once?"

"Each of the gems in our family's crown –"

"No," Kimberly denied, suddenly understanding and wishing she did not.

Unstoppable, Bryndis continued, "Was given form and power by one of my sisters. They gave their lives in a covenant, using their very souls to shape the magic that would protect their descendants for a thousand years or more, so that the likes of Zedd would never trouble our people again. I was the youngest, and so it fell to me to be Queen when they had gone."

"No," Kimberly said again. "That _cannot_ be true. That would mean -"

"I was born not far from this very castle," Bryndis confessed. "Did you not think it strange that Zedd should speak your language, when even Trini did not when she first came to live with you?"

"No," Kimberly repeated, but she knew that the First Queen was not lying about any of it. All of a sudden, it made sense. Jason was the Heir to the Sword of Power because his family had originally come from here, too. How many of the great families of her kingdom had actually come from Phaedos? And what about the rest of the people she ruled? Had _all_ of them originally lived in Phaedos?

It was impossible.

And yet she knew in her heart it was true.

"Kimberly, you must calm yourself," Bryndis warned. She had already begun to fade. "You are," she faltered, grimacing, fading even more. "Kimberly, stop this. _Don't panic._ You must let me have enough power to –"

And then she was gone, and Kimberly was alone again – and still trapped.

 

 

"Aisha's not going to be happy when she finds out we didn't listen to her," Adam pointed out. For the third time.

"Has that ever stopped me before?" Rocky asked halfheartedly. As a matter of fact, Aisha's wrath, while impressive, had never stopped him from doing anything before, and they both knew it. And it wasn't fear _of_ her that had made him reluctant to agree to Tommy's plan. It was fear _for_ her. If her wild plan didn't work…

Sending her into that tunnel, even with Katherine, even knowing she would have accepted no reason why she should not go, had nearly killed him. When he and Adam had caught up with Billy and Tommy only to find out that Tommy's plan was to mount a cavalry charge instead of trying to find their own way into the castle, it had very nearly come to blows between them. Rocky considered the risks unthinkable. Tommy thought Kats quick thinking and Aisha's magic ring meant their chances of failure were minimal.

Rocky had a feeling Adam was trying to distract him. He appreciated the effort, but it wasn't working. All he could think about was Aisha in the monster's lair. And Tommy pulling rank on him to force him to obey. He didn't like that one bit, but he had to admit Tommy had guts to even attempt it. That, or he was that desperate to save Kimberly.

He didn't like to admit it, but if their situations had been reversed, he would have done the same thing. That they were two knights, a squire, and an archivist, and mounted on pack animals rather than warhorses would have meant nothing. He would have done anything to save Aisha, so he couldn't begrudge Tommy too much for doing just that for Kimberly.

The only problem was that Rocky didn't share Tommy's confidence about Aisha's success. Zedd, or his underlings, had taken Jason and Dulcea captive, and that couldn't have been an easy feat. Against a force like that, in their very citadel, what hope did Aisha possibly have? He knew she would be furious if she knew he doubted her like that, but he couldn't help the fear.

He tried not to notice how the sky was growing noticeably lighter in the east. He tried to ignore the feeling that they had been waiting too long, the sure knowledge that something must have gone wrong, that Aisha needed his help and he wasn't there to give it. His horse shifted placidly under him, as if it were completely unaware of the frantic racing of his thoughts. His warhorse back home would have sensed his restlessness. Not that missing the loyal beast would do him much good now, with home so very far away.

All of a sudden Tommy gave a triumphant cry and spurred his horse into action. For a moment Rocky just stared after him, not comprehending. And then he realized that the drawbridge was lowering. Whether it was Aisha's doing or not, this was their only chance and they would have to take it.

He hurried his horse after Tommy, listening as Adam and Billy raced after. It seemed to take no time at all to cover the open expanse between the forest and the castle, and then they were on the drawbridge. There were no defenders; Rocky could only hope that meant that Aisha had succeeded, and that this wasn't some kind of trap.

They crossed into the courtyard to find Aisha and Katherine waiting, exuberant grins on both of their faces. Miraculously, they were both unharmed. They had obviously been involved in a fight, but Rocky could see no sign of a battle anywhere. He dropped down off his horse and swept Aisha up into his arms.

She whapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Put me down, you big lout."

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," he murmured for her ears only, but he set her down again anyway. "Tell us what happened. This… doesn't make any sense."

"You mean because there are no guards?" Aisha asked pointedly. "Yeah, we didn't run into anybody at all until we got to the gatehouse. _That_ was crawling with guards, but the rest of the castle looked deserted."

"Rocky's right," Tommy said. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Neither does the fact that once we had dispatched them, the guards disappeared," Katherine added.

"Unless they were created by magic," Adam murmured.

He had barely finished making his observation when the enormous doors to the castle keep flew open. At first Rocky thought they had opened of their own accord, but a moment later Lord Zedd himself strode out into the courtyard, flanked by rank after rank of soldiers.

"This has gone on long enough," he announced. He did not speak loudly, but his voice carried with perfect clarity.

Rocky reached for his sword. He did not even have to glance over to know that Aisha was standing ready for battle at his side. They were as massively outnumbered now as he had feared Aisha and Kat would be before, but somehow he was less afraid now. With Aisha on one side and Adam on the other, he knew he had nothing to fear.

"Release our friends," Tommy ordered.

Zedd had the audacity to laugh. "You are welcome to them," he said finally, "if you can take them from me."

It was hardly a fair offer, since Zedd had clearly been expecting them and his forces outnumbered them at least five to one, but it was the best they were likely to get. The odds had been stacked against them from the very beginning of this adventure. They just hadn't known enough about what they were getting into to realize it. They'd been lucky so far. Rocky saw no reason to back down now.

And neither did Tommy, obviously. He drew his sword and raced toward Zedd, heedless of the way Zedd's minions moved to protect their lord. Tommy's horse crashed into them and panicked, and he was soon forced to let the beast go rather than risk being thrown.

For a moment Rocky regretted letting his horse go, but there was no time to dwell on it, and he would rather be on the same level as Aisha anyway. He brandished his own weapon, conscious of Aisha and Adam forming up behind him, and rushed after Tommy. Somehow, he was certain, they would have to find a way to get Tommy through to Zedd. Their last encounter had proved that Tommy was the only one with any kind of resistance to Zedd's evil magic, which made him their best chance at winning this fight.

As Zedd's minions flowed against and around them like a deadly wave, Rocky found himself wishing he had thought to bring a weapon like Aisha's spear. His sword simply didn't have the reach of her spear. If he hadn't been so busy defending her back, he would have wondered where in the world she'd acquired that thing in the first place, because she certainly hadn't hauled it all the way across Phaedos with her.

At one point, he caught sight of Adam helping defend Kat and Billy, and Tommy hacking his way past soldier after soldier… but it was an uphill battle and they seemed to be making no progress at all in reaching Zedd. No matter how many of the soldiers they dispatched, there always seemed to be more of them streaming out of the keep. They had been fighting for several minutes now, and had barely moved from their original positions.

It was impossible.

Rocky realized with a flash of irritation that it was magic. None of the soldiers were real. That was they their bodies disappeared after they had been slain, and that was how there could be so many of them. The only problem was realizing it didn't give him any idea of how to deal with it. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd been sure magic was just something from children's stories, something the royal family was said to possess in order to justify the pattern of matrilineal succession. Beyond that and the bits and pieces he'd gleaned from Kimberly and Dulcea, Rocky knew as good as nothing about magic.

"Billy!" he shouted. "You got any brilliant ideas?" But it was obvious that Billy either didn't hear him over the din of battle or was too preoccupied with staying on his horse and using his quarterstaff to fend off enemy soldiers to answer. Rocky was pleased to note that at least for the moment, Billy _was_ still on his horse.

Since Aisha was close enough at hand to actually respond, he turned to her next. "'Sha –"

"Yeah, I heard you," she said, grunting as she thrust her spear hard enough to pierce her opponent's armor. "Tell me what you need and you'll get it."

Something suddenly fell into place in his mind. "That spear," he paused to dispatch a soldier that got too close. "Your ring?"

"Yeah. Turns out it makes more than armor." She swung her spear in a wide, warning arc, but the enemy soldiers were not intimidated in the least and kept right on coming after the spear passed them by. "Ugh, these guys are relentless!"

They were. But Rocky had noticed that while at first they had seemed almost human, they had slowly begun to become less and less human. Some of the enemies they were fighting now seemed to be little more than animated suits of armor. He was pretty sure some of the helmets staring at him were empty.

"Rocky, if you've got a plan, I'd love to hear it," Aisha grumbled.

Rocky sought frantically for a solution. "Do you think you could make a catapult?"

Aisha actually stopped fighting to glare at him, only returning to the fray when three of the enemy soldiers closed in on her. "What?" she demanded as she fended them off. "Do you want me to just throw Tommy over them?"

"Do you think that would work?"

She did not dignify that with a response.

"Could you make something that would take a lot of these guys down at once?" he asked.

"I don't know. Why?"

"Because I think Zedd's creating them," he told her. "On the fly. Look at them closely."

She inhaled sharply. "He's just throwing as many of them at us as he can to tire us out."

"My thoughts exactly. But if we could take them down fast enough, I wonder if we could wear him out before he wears us out." He risked a glance over toward Billy, Adam, and Tommy again, and fleetingly wondered where Kat had disappeared to. It didn't look like the others were faring any better than he and Aisha were. Between them, they had now managed to gain perhaps ten feet of ground. At this rate, they would be too exhausted to move by the time they finally reached Zedd. Exactly as he planned, no doubt.

Rocky wondered just how limitless Zedd's power was, and then he remembered the castle full of people who had been turned to stone by Zedd's magic. This castle was empty, too. Somehow Rocky had a feeling he knew what had happened to the people who lived there. Horrified by the implication, he had to wonder if the same fate had befallen _everyone_ in Phaedos, and that was why they hadn't run into any people during their entire journey.

"Aisha, we've got to do something," he began.

"I know," she agreed. "Can you keep these guys busy for me? Don't kill them, he'll just send more. But keep them busy?"

They switched places as easily as if they'd practiced the maneuver a hundred times. He was only armed with his sword, so his range was more limited, but Aisha had decided on a course of action and she acted on it immediately. She backed up several paces, took aim, and hurled her spear directly at Zedd.

Her aim was dead-on. Zedd did not even bother trying to block the spear before it embedded itself in his chest. Clearly he considered himself invulnerable to such an attack. His soldiers abruptly disappeared and for a moment it seemed that all he could do was stare at the haft, which was embedded grotesquely in his chest. Then he looked up, and his gaze in all its fury focused on Aisha. "Magic?" he snarled. "You have no magic!"

He pulled the spear from his chest; the wound smoked and leaked dark red fluid. His hand gripped the spear so hard that it suddenly shattered into a million golden shards.

Aisha cried out and collapsed, her magical armor shattering like the spear. She hit the ground before Rocky could intervene, and when she did, the magic ring came off her finger. The chain that had kept it always attached to her wrist disappeared, and so did the ring itself, which turned into a finely cut topaz as it clattered to the ground.

Rocky rushed to her side. Zedd could have struck him down then for all he cared. All that mattered was Aisha. Adam was there an instant later, followed more slowly by Kat, Tommy, and Billy.

"This isn't over," Zedd fumed. He sounded even angrier than before, and yet he had made no attempt to attack. A quick glance revealed that the wound Aisha's spear had inflicted continued to smolder and leak blood. Rocky got the impression that Zedd thought it should be healing by now. "This isn't over!" Zedd repeated, before disappearing in a cloud of thick smoke.

Adam had the presence of mind to intercept Tommy. "Go. Find Kimberly. This could be your only chance. We'll look after Aisha."

Tommy nodded once, and disappeared into the keep. Kat and Billy hesitated, but went after him.

Rocky barely noticed them leave.

"Come on, Aisha," he murmured. She remained completely unresponsive, barely even breathing. "You have to be all right…"

 

 

Tommy couldn't stand the thought of leaving Rocky, Adam, and Aisha behind, but he had to admit Adam had made a good point. Aisha had scored a decisive blow against Zedd. This might be their only chance to find Kimberly and the others.

With that in mind, he told Billy and Kat, "You two try and find the dungeon. See if you can find Jason and Dulcea."

"Where are you going, then?" Billy asked.

"I'm going to finish this," he answered grimly. But first he intended to find and free his wife, and somehow he was absolutely certain that she would not be beneath the castle in the dungeon. Something, maybe magic, told him that she was somewhere in the tower up above. He knew with equal certainty that Zedd was up there somewhere, too, which was part of the reason he was sending Billy and Kat somewhere else. They'd helped get him this far. The last thing he wanted to do now was put them in any more danger than he had to, especially after seeing what had happened to Aisha.

"Go," he urged. "I'm probably going to need their help."

That got them moving.

When he was certain they were not going to come back and follow him, Tommy made for the prominent staircase that dominated the keep's entry hall. It was meant to impress, but it would have seemed more striking to Tommy had he not been so set on his goal. As he made his way up the steps, ready at every twist and turn for Zedd or his minions to jump out at him, the sensation of simply _knowing_ where Kimberly was grew stronger and stronger.

A trap? Or was Kimberly herself guiding him?

He couldn't be sure. But the feeling was so strong and so hard to resist that by the time he reached a landing several floors up, he knew it had to be Kimberly. And all that stood between them now was a thick wooden door.

Much to his surprise, the door was not barred or locked in any way. His heart sank. Either this was a trap after all, or Zedd hadn't thought anyone would make it this far. Steeling himself, and as ready as he could be for an attack, he threw the door open.

Inside was a spacious chamber. A fire had burned to embers in the hearth, outlining the silhouette of a bed, and there was no other source of light in the room. The darkness filled him with trepidation. He hadn't thought to bring a torch, and anything could be concealed in the dark. But if Kimberly was in there, he had to reach her. He had to break whatever hold Zedd had over here. There simply was no other option.

"Kimberly?" he ventured, and received no response.

He took a deep breath and stepped into the room. Nothing happened. No one attacked him, but he still felt an enormous sense of foreboding, like a warning that Zedd was still lurking nearby. He wished he knew how long it would take Zedd to recover from that injury, but worrying about that would do him no good right now. He would just have to make every second count.

"Kimberly," he said again, and again there was no response. But now his eyes had begun to adjust to the darkness of the chamber, and he could make out a faintly pink glow emanating from the bed in addition to the faint red light from the hearth. There was no mistaking that shade of pink light; he'd seen it a hundred times when Kimberly practiced her magic.

Throwing caution to the wind, he rushed to her side only to stop in horror when he saw her. She was lying on the bed, completely unresponsive. She looked like she might be dead. Her chest did not even rise and fall as she breathed. Was she even breathing at all? Somehow he thought not.

He could hardly bear to look at her, but he could not seem to look away. Against all logic, he felt the overwhelming compulsion to kiss her. And almost before he realized what he was doing, he had taken off his helmet and done just that.

The moment his lips brushed against hers, he ceased to be in that dark and creepy bedchamber and found himself somewhere else entirely. At first he thought he was _nowhere_ because all that was around him seemed to be mist and emptiness, but then he turned and caught sight of the crystal. It was enormous, taller than he was, and brilliantly pink, and he knew Kimberly had had a hand in creating it. Only she could love such a gaudy shade of pink. The thought of her made him smile in spite of his confusion.

Since it was the only thing in sight, he headed over to the crystal. As he neared it, he realized that it wasn't as opaque as he had originally thought. The faceted sides were translucent, and inside the gem he could see… "Kimberly!"

She had been sitting forlornly at the center of the gem, but when he spoke she looked up to stare at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Tommy? Is that really you?"

"In the flesh," he said. "Well, sort of. Where are we?"

"I think we're in my head," she admitted, sounding a bit sheepish. "Though I don't have any idea how _you_ got here…"

"What is all this?" he asked, gesturing broadly at the crystal.

"Yeah, funny story." She sighed. "Zedd was trying to control me," she told him. "But I wouldn't let him. This thing keeps him out. Unfortunately it also keeps me in, and I can't find a way to get rid of it."

"I know this is an obvious question, but did you try magic?" he asked.

She fixed him with a fiercely irritated look. "What do you think created this thing in the first place? I know it's trying to protect me, but I can't do anything from in here, and no matter what I try, it won't go away."

Hesitating only a little, Tommy reached out and pressed his hand against the crystal. He knew none of this could be real, but it felt perfectly solid under his palm. He pushed against it, but it did not yield. He reached for his sword, realized he did not have it, and gave up on that plan of attack.

"What I can't figure out," Kimberly went on, "is how _you _got here." Tommy wondered if he should admit to kissing her while she was unconscious and still under Zedd's control, but she rambled on without giving him a chance to confess. "All of my power is supposed to be locked up in here with me, or at least Zedd thought it was. Hell," she said, exasperated, "_I_ thought it was."

"But remember what happened with the stone spell?" he murmured, almost to himself as he thought out loud. "Your magic on your own wasn't strong enough to stop it. But together…" He paused, wondering if maybe he had hit on something crucial. "I wonder… your magic is linked to me. Is part of it _in_ me?"

She stared at him, bewildered.

"When I was looking for you just now," he explained. "I _knew_ where you were. I didn't even have to look, I just knew. It was like you were calling me."

Her expression shifted from confusion to wariness.

"Come here," he went on, increasingly excited. "I know how to get you out."

She stayed exactly where she was. "This isn't some kind of trick, is it? You're not really… Zedd… are you?"

"Do you think I'm Zedd?"

"No," she admitted. "But I wouldn't put it past him to try and disguise himself as you to trick me."

"I wouldn't either. So let's get you out of here and safe while he's still out of commission."

"He's…"

Tommy grinned. "You can thank Aisha for that, but yes. He's out of our hair for the moment, but I don't know how much time we have."

That seemed to settle her doubts. She inched closer to stand directly opposite him, so that the only thing that separated them was the pink wall of the crystal.

"Put your hands up here, like mine," he instructed.

She did as he asked. He could feel the familiar warmth of her hands against his through the crystal and, after a moment, the crystal seemed to fade where their hands touched. He interlaced his fingers with hers while she stared in awe, and _pulled_. There was a sense of mild resistance, but Kimberly tumbled right through the crystal wall and into his arms.

And just as suddenly as he had been pulled out of his body, Tommy was thrust back into it. He stood up and pulled away from Kimberly. He was so ecstatic to see her open her eyes, and to see _her_ in those eyes again, instead of the terrifying emptiness that had been there when Zedd took control of her, that it barely registered that the chamber they were in was now fully lit.

Kimberly opened her eyes with a faint smile and started to prop herself up…

…and then she screamed.

It took him a moment to realize that he'd staggered forward from the force of a sudden blow, and that Kimberly was screaming because there was a sword's blade protruding from his chest.


	37. A New Age Dawns

Nervousness threatened to overwhelm Billy as he and Katherine made their way slowly into the depths below the castle. He knew he ought to feel at least a bit more confident after the more or less successful battle against Zedd's forces, or at least because of the magic armor that protected him, but at heart he was still no warrior. He would fight because it was necessary, but at the same time he would hate the necessity.

Even so, he knew that he and Kat were the only ones left that could rescue Jason and Dulcea. They would have to manage somehow, warriors or no. From her wide eyes and stoic silence, he gathered that Katherine felt much the same way he did, and the thought was almost comforting.

All things considered, they were lucky. The stairways and halls leading deep beneath the castle were well lit by torches set into the walls, so they did not have to fumble in darkness, and except for the two of them the halls and stairwells all seemed to be emtpy. They followed a twisting stair down until they encountered a landing. The stair continued to spiral down into the dark, and Billy wondered if they ought to follow it. Irrationally, he wondered if Zedd wouldn't have thrown their friends into the deepest, darkest cells in the dungeon and simply left them to rot. Rationally, he knew he and Kat should begin their search, methodically, at the beginning and make sure to miss nothing.

He had hoped that they were done with Zedd's henchmen after the battle, and considering how empty the ground floor of the castle had appeared, but that hope proved to be in vain. He and Kat had only ventured a few steps down that narrow, but well-lit stone corridor when they were discovered by a squad of six of the strange men that Zedd employed as minions.

Horrified, Billy backtracked in a hurry, brandishing the hewn sapling he'd been using as a makeshift quarterstaff since the siege. The guardsmen were not intimidated and brandished their own weapons in response as they continued implacably forward.

"Stay behind me, Katherine!" Billy warned, though he really had no idea what to do. Against one of the guards he might have a chance of victory. But against six, he knew the fight would be hopeless even with his magic armor. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that they did not give him too much time to ponder his fate.

The hall was cramped, which meant that his opponents had to come at him in ones and twos, but the narrowness of the hall also restricted his movement with the quarterstaff. Billy kept backing up, wishing that he had had time to convince Adam or Rocky to accompany him, but he knew his time was running out. They could only back a few more feet down the corridor before they would run into the stairwell again and find their backs against a wall.

"Billy, are you using your ring?" Katherine asked quietly.

He nodded, wondering what she was getting at. He'd seen no harm in telling her that he had the sapphire ring, nor in explaining what he knew of its properties to her. But she'd had no better idea than he what it was capable of or what use it might be on their journey. Had she learned something of which he was unaware?

"Did you know you can create weapons with it?"

Now that she mentioned it, he was aware of that fact. But seeing that he was already armed with the quarterstaff, he wasn't sure what good that might do him.

"Make me a crossbow," she murmured, not needing him to explain his consternation.

It clattered to the floor at her feet almost before he even consciously thought about it – a finely crafted crossbow all in blue, complete with a quarrel full of bolts.

Grinning, Kat scooped it up and readied the first bolt. "Just keep them back as best as you can," she said. "I should be able to get rid of them with this."

Billy did as she said, wondering where this newfound courage had come from. Aisha seemed to have rubbed off on her during their infiltration of the castle… not that he was likely to complain when it meant she was about to save his life.

She put the first bolt through the leading guard's throat. He fell to the ground silently and died and vanished, leaving only his five companions. Billy tried his best to keep the remainder at bay while Kat reloaded the crossbow, but his skill was limited in spite of Aisha's daily lessons. He kept wanting to look over his shoulder to gauge Kat's progress, but he knew he had to keep his eye on the enemy instead. If they managed to corner him and Kat, it would all be over.

A second bolt fired and a second guard went down. Katherine's aim was truly impeccable, or perhaps it was just the magic from her weapon.

"Remember," Kat said, "your armor isn't regular armor. It's magic. It can protect you from them in ways a normal suit of armor couldn't. I know you can be brave, Billy."

He had a feeling he knew what she wasn't saying: she'd backed up as far as she could and now their options were to stand their ground or try and get back up the stairs with Zedd's guards on them. Either way, their odds of survival, much less victory, were not good. But he did his best to do what Kat said. He could be brave. He thought he would rather die bravely, defending his friend, than to die a coward alone and forgotten in a cell.

So he gave a shout and charged at the remaining guards, wielding his makeshift quarterstaff like a lance. One of the guards got past him before he could whip the staff to one side, but he heard the sound of the crossbow firing and he knew Kat had got that one, too.

Three down, three to go.

Somehow, whether by magic or by sheer luck, they managed to dispatch the remaining three guards without injury to themselves, and found themselves standing in an empty hall. Billy half expected more guards to appear at any moment, but it seemed Zedd was otherwise occupied and for the moment at least they could proceed unmolested.

They hurried down the hall as best they could, but it was lined with doors on both sides and they had to check each of these for signs of their missing companions. The first one, from which the dead guards had emerged yielded only the guards' post, where they must have spent their time when they were not patrolling the dungeon. Billy and Kat found the enormous master key ring there, but little else of interest, and so they returned to the main hall.

The doors were made of old, thick wood and studded with metal, and for the most part they were locked. Only the guards' outpost had been unlocked. There was no telling what horrors might lurk behind those doors, but they had to be checked, so despite his reluctance Billy cautiously opened the viewing slits and peered past the iron bars and into each of the cells.

A few were empty. Most were packed with more incredibly lifelike statues like the ones they had encountered earlier. Billy tried not to think about what that might mean, but he found himself taking the extra time to unlock each of the cells anyway, to at least symbolically release each of the poor people trapped within.

After a long time they came to the large door at the very end of the hall. This door was not locked as the others had been, and Billy felt particularly wary of opening it. He knew it was ridiculous, but the room beyond gave him a very, very bad feeling and the last thing he wanted to do was open the door and go in. He glanced back at Kat, almost hoping that she would agree that they should turn and head back to the stairwell, but she grimly gripped her crossbow and waited for him to open the door.

He took a deep breath and did just that, and wished he had not. The room beyond the door was much larger than the cells he and Katherine had thus far encountered, but it was filled not with human statues but with instruments of torture. But that was not what caught his attention. It was the fact that Jason was lying on the floor at the center of that room, recognizable only from his armor. When he heard them enter, he sat up and looked their way, and they realized he was tethered by a chain fastened around his wrists at one end and around a metal loop in the floor at the other. He looked like he'd been through hell.

Throwing caution to the wind, Katherine was at his side in a moment. Billy was more cautious. And so was Jason. He was clearly wondering, just as Billy was, whether this was some kind of trick or trap. And that was enough to convince Billy that this was the real Jason and not merely some trick of Zedd's.

"Are you all right?" Kat asked.

Jason stared at her for a moment like he couldn't believe she was actually there. "He got inside my head," he muttered.

"It's okay," Kat went on. "We'll get you out of here."

But looking at his old friend, Billy had to wonder if Jason would really be okay. Whatever had happened, it had clearly troubled him a great deal.

Jason's shackles didn't have a lock. They were merely lengths of chain sealed around his wrists and to the floor. It didn't take Billy long to magic up a saw that was not particularly elegant, but served its purpose well enough. Breaking through the chain was the work of a few minutes with a sawblade that couldn't break.

Even though he was free, Jason seemed reluctant to get up. He looked at Billy for a long time, and his dark eyes were filled with hurt and something that looked oddly like guilt.

Billy looked away. He fully expected Zedd to come looming out of the flickering shadows that lurked at the edges of the room, but the evil lord did not make an appearance. "I hate to push," he said, "but you don't happen to know what became of Dulcea, do you?"

Jason shook his head. "They separated us before they threw me in the dungeon. I don't know what they did to her after that."

"We have to find her," Katherine murmured. "Tommy was going to find Kimberly… I think he intends to fight Zedd himself. He's going to need her help."

That got Jason moving. Billy had a bad feeling as he watched Jason climb to his feet. Jason had obviously been through a lot since his capture, and Billy wasn't certain that trying to help Tommy fight Zedd was the best course of action at this point. But he knew better than to argue with Jason or get in his way once his mind was set on something. Once that happened, all Billy could really do was help.

"Keep looking for Dulcea," Jason said, still watching them warily, as if he did not quite believe they were who they said they were, or that he was really free from Zedd's chains. "I'm going to help Tommy."

But in the face of sheer angry foolishness, Billy at least had to _try_ to put a stop to it. "Jason, you are exhausted. You are unarmed. How much help do you really think you can be to Tommy right now? You should rest -"

"I'll rest later," Jason countered. Billy had a feeling "later" meant _when either I am dead, or Zedd is._

"That plan is most unwise," Billy protested. He looked to Kat for support, but she looked just as lost as he felt. And that was how he missed when Jason removed his gauntlets and used the magic ruby that Kimberly had given him so long ago. There was the faintest shimmering of red light, and by the time Billy looked over to see what had caused it, Jason had completely altered his armor. No longer was he unarmed or missing his helm.

This armor was all red, the color of blood – or just the same hue as the ruby. It was no longer dented and worn from long weeks of travel, but perfect and shining in the dim torchlight. The helm seemd to have something of a dragon's fierce visage to it, and in his hand was a bastard sword of exactly the style Jason had always preferred on the tourney field. The blade, too, was red.

"Does it look like my plan is unwise now?" Jason asked.

To Billy he looked like something wrought of blood and fire, terrible in its fury and its desire for vengeance. _What did Zedd do to you?_ Billy wondered, and felt his heart sink. He couldn't in good conscience let Jason go after Tommy and Zedd alone, not when there was no telling what he might do or how vulnerable he might really be. And at the same time they could not afford to give up their search for Dulcea. The only possible choice he could see would be to split up.

Jason had not waited for Billy to figure out what to do, which was in itself another alarming sign. He had already departed from the chamber by the time Billy thought to say, "Katherine, you should go with him."

"What about you?" she demanded. "And Dulcea…"

"I will locate Dulcea. But right now, I think Jason needs your good sense more than I do," he admitted.

"Me?" She sounded taken aback, but the more he thought about it the more he knew it was the right course of action. In the past, Trini had always been able to get through to Jason, and Katherine was very like Trini in many respects. If anyone among them had a chance of helping Jason now, it was Kat.

"I'm not certain that in his current state of mind Jason can truly tell friend from foe," he admitted. "When he's this angry, Jason is prone to acting without thinking. He is unlikely to listen to me regarding this matter. But if anyone can convince him, it's you."

Katherine looked doubtful, but resolute. She nodded once, wished him luck, and departed after Jason.

Alone and filled with trepidation, Billy regarded the large door at the opposite end of the room, the mirror of the one he and Kat had come through. He had a feeling he would find more dungeon cells on the other side, and he was right.

He hoped to find Dulcea in one of those cells, but he found only more statues. When he reached the end of that hall, he came to another staircase and followed that down to the next level, where he found more cells and more statues. As before, he unlocked each of the cells and left them that way even though he knew that the people within could not escape from the magic that bound them. He had no way of knowing who they had been in life, but he had a feeling that they were not criminals but the ordinary people who had lived in the castle before Zedd came to power.

Four levels and innumerable cells later, Billy found the one where Dulcea was being held. He was pleased to see that she was alive and at least visibly unharmed, though she was bound to the far wall by many chains. It was clear just from looking at her that Zedd feared her power.

"Billy!" she gasped in surprise when he entered. "Where are the others?"

"Taking care of Zedd, I suspect," he said, hastening to free her.

She was silent as he unlocked her and helped remove the chains, and when he was done she looked upward with wide eyes and said, "We must hurry. Your friends are in grave danger… I fear we may already be too late."

 

 

In the castle courtyard, Aisha stirred. "What hit me?" she asked, failing to sit up and settling for blinking her eyes blearily. It couldn't have been longer than a few minutes, but it felt like she'd been unconscious for hours.

Adam let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding while Rocky managed a rueful smile and said, "Zedd hit you. Guess that's what happens when you spear an evil sorcerer like that."

Ordinarily, Aisha would have had some sort of comeback ready; instead, she just groaned and closed her eyes again. "It feels like he tried to rip my head off," she murmured.

"I thought you were dead," Rocky admitted.

"I'm a little bit harder to kill than that," Aisha teased weakly. "Where's my ring?"

"It came off when Zedd attacked you," Adam told her. He picked it up and offered it to her, but she shook her head.

"I don't want it back just yet," she told them. "I'm not sure I really want that kind of power."

Adam had no doubt that the ring's magic had saved her life, but he respected her wishes. "I'll hang onto it for you until you decide what to do with it," he promised.

"Don't touch it with your bare skin," she cautioned, sounding wearier by the moment. "Keep your gloves on when you handle it or it may bind itself to you."

"Might not be a bad thing," Rocky commented, glancing upward at the keep, where they knew their friends were very likely doing battle with Zedd. "We might need that power, and if you don't feel up to it –"

"We don't know what happened to it when Zedd zapped me," Aisha murmured. "It could be dangerous to use it now. I think we should wait until Dulcea's had a chance to look at it."

It had not occurred to Adam that the gem's power might have been somehow affected by Zedd's attack, or that it might have been booby-trapped, but now that Aisha had brought it up he was more wary of even carrying it for her. But at the same time, he knew they couldn't just leave it there in the courtyard for anyone to find. So he slipped it into one of the pouches at his belt and decided that would have to be good enough for now.

"I'm not sure I want it back, anyway," Aisha went on. She seemed to be speaking almost as much to herself as to Rocky and Adam. "That kind of power… it's a little too convenient. It's easy just to rely on it without thinking of the consequences… or get carried away and reckless. Dulcea and Trini warned me I might not be able to ever get rid of it if I accepted the ring, but now that it's off… I… I don't know if I want that responsibility back."

Adam watched her somberly. He completely understood where she was coming from. He'd been worried about that ever since the day she showed them the ring and told them Trini had given it to her and pledged her to protect Kimberly. In a way, he was glad to see that burden lifted from her, if only just in part.

"Come on, 'Sha," Rocky muttered, shifting his grip on Aisha so that he could pull her up onto his back and carry her more easily. She wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder while he hooked his arms around her thighs and staggered to his feet. "I want to see what's going on in there." He glanced to Adam. "You're going to have to keep us safe. I can't exactly fight like this."

Adam nodded, hating the necessity, but knowing he would defend the two of them to the death if he had to. He would have preferred to have both of them at his side and in fighting shape, but he knew they were in danger the longer they stayed in the open like that, so he led the way into the castle and tried not to look back too often. It was better to keep moving and see if they could find some way to help their friends, or at least stay out of trouble.

 

 

Jason knew Katherine was afraid to follow him, but in his current state of mind he almost didn't care whether she followed or not. In fact, he half thought she would just get in his way. Right now, he wanted to destroy Lord Zedd, not wind up having to protect Kat – or anyone else – from Zedd's minions.

But Billy had sent her along for a reason, so he didn't complain when she caught up to him, but he didn't go out of his way to make her feel welcome, either. He was still in turmoil inside, still reeling from the way Zedd had simply reached in and played with his mind. Deep down, he knew that Kat and Billy and all the others were friends, but the memories of them hurting him were too fresh even if he knew they were false.

And since healing those emotional wounds was going to take time, for the moment he was perfectly happy to focus on getting revenge on the man that had caused those wounds in the first place. He didn't have to ask Kat for directions; the castle was laid out almost exactly the same as the one back home, and he was able to navigate out of the lower levels and up into the keep without getting too lost. All the while, Katherine dogged his steps but did not speak or interfere.

In a way, her presence was soothing. She probably could tell he was hurting just as much as Billy had, but she was willing to simply follow and not pry or offer platitudes or assistance… someday he knew he'd have to let her know that he appreciated that. Because right now what he needed was some sort of closure, not promises of a shoulder to lean on or a willing ear to listen, though he knew Kat would happily have provided both of those things.

As they made their way higher and higher into the castle, he began to expect an attack from every door or stair that branched off the main hall that they were following. He glanced back at Kat, relieved to see that she had brought the crossbow with her. "Can you use that thing?"

Her expression was grim. "Yes," she said, and loaded a bolt into the crossbow for good measure.

"Good," he told her. "Because I think we're about to need it."

They were near the end of the hallway, about to open a door onto another stair which would lead them up again, and his sense of foreboding had been growing more intense with every step. He'd learned enough in the last several hours to know that inexplicable feeling of dread grew worse when Zedd was near.

Sure enough, the door immediately in front of them flew open suddenly, flooding more of Zedd's zombie-guards into the hall. Jason did not wait to let them make a stand. Instead he rushed headlong into them, trusting to the magic of his armor to keep him safe. He remembered only too well what had happened when he had not trusted Kimberly's magic to protect Trini, and he remembered all the ways it had helped Trini during their fight against Rita Repulsa. And now he just had to believe it would do the same for him.

The zombies seemed unable to land a decisive blow against him. The ruby-red armor was remarkable at turning aside even the most direct attacks, and his magic-powered sword sliced through his enemies' armor like a hot knife through butter. He knew that that kind of power should have alarmed him and made him cautious, but now it just made him reckless… and relentless. Blood-lust rushed through him as he destroyed Zedd's minions, thrilling to take out his fury on the hapless zombies, who disappeared as soon as he had dispatched them.

He had felled a dozen of them at least – and Kat had taken down two more with her crossbow – before he heard Katherine cry out and realized he'd become so caught up in wreaking destruction on his enemies that he hadn't thought to keep Kat safe. He'd let the guards get around him, not caring if he ended up surrounded. He realized with a pang that he'd let his inner pain completely cloud his judgment. He couldn't let Kat pay the price for that.

Whirling, he saw that she'd tumbled under the weight of one of the zombies. She'd managed to put a crossbow bolt through his throat, so he disappeared almost as soon as he took her down, but there were two more of the warriors closing in on her. There was no way she could get up and get her weapon reloaded in time to save herself.

A part of him wanted to leave her behind anyway, and just keep looking for Zedd so he could have his revenge that much sooner… and that part appalled him. He hadn't fully realized just how much Zedd's little game had messed him up until that very instant. _You think you've won, Zedd, that you've destroyed me and everything I stand for… but you're wrong,_ he thought.

He threw off the three remaining zombies that had been closing in on him and rushed back to Kat. He kicked one of the two zombie-guards into the nearest wall and let his momentum carry him forward to interpose himself between Kat and the remaining zombie. He'd misjudged the angle slightly and staggered to one knee, but still managed to block the incoming sword strike. And from there it was a simple matter of deflecting his opponent's sword and running him through. The body disappeared as soon as Jason's sword pierced through its gut, so he was able to effortlessly whip the blade around to the side, slicing deep into the second guard as it recovered from hitting the wall and came after him. That guard disappeared just like the first.

That left only the three he had been fighting originally. For whatever reason, the steady stream of guards had ceased. Jason knew they had to take advantage of the respite while they had the chance, so he surged back into the fray, intercepting the three zombies before they could reach Kat. He dispatched two of them, and was surprised when Kat put one of her bolts through the final guard's eye.

He turned back to Kat and helped her up. "I'm sorry," he told her. "I should have paid more attention to keeping you safe."

"It's okay," she said, giving a weak smile. "You remembered in time."

He had, but that was a small comfort. He'd been too reckless in his desire for vengeance. Now he could only hope she knew he wouldn't let it happen again.

Keeping Kat close behind him, and keeping a much closer eye on her now, he led the way into the stairwell and up… to where he knew Zedd – and vengeance – would be waiting.

 

 

Kimberly could not comprehend what had just happened. One minute she'd been waking up, free from the spell that had bound her, looking at Tommy, smiling in spite of herself because together they were unstoppable… and the next moment Zedd had appeared behind him. On some level, she realized that Zedd had stabbed him in the back with his own sword, but the sight of that sword's blade in her husband's chest had sent every thought right out of her head. Every thought but terrified anguish.

And then it all abruptly came crashing back. "Tommy!"

The white armor that he'd worn into battle since the day he received the dragon Erë's blessing was beginning to turn black where the blade had pierced it, and the magical taint was spreading slowly outward from the wound.

Kimberly gave a wordless shriek of rage, intending to unleash all of her magical fury at Zedd, but nothing happened. Her magic didn't respond to her. At all. It was as if she had no magic.

Even Zedd seemed confused by that, but it passed quickly. Laughing triumphantly, he shoved Tommy out of his way. Kimberly couldn't take her eyes off Tommy as he crumpled limply to the floor, at least not until Zedd tried to grab her.

Suddenly her survival instincts kicked back in. She squirmed away from him as best she could, her hand closing tightly around what she realized belatedly was a pink diamond approximately the same shape as the one she had accidentally trapped herself in. Only this one was real. And this one held all the power of her bottled-up magic.

As soon as it touched her bare hand, the surge of power overwhelmed her. It was just like her magic had always been, only it all seemed to be right at her fingertips, rather than elusive and confusing. It embraced her, wrapping around her, protecting, empowering. She knew even before she opened her eyes what had happened: somehow she had created a new gem like the ones from her family's ancestral crown, only she hadn't had to give her life to do it.

She didn't worry about the repercussions of that now, or the fact that she was now clad in pink armor and armed with a shining pink sword. All she knew was that she had to kill Zedd in time to save Tommy, and that she had the power to do it. She just wasn't sure exactly how to pull it off.

With Tommy unconscious she couldn't use him to boost her power, so instead she focused on pulling on power from everywhere around her and merging it with the power in her diamond. She gathered it to her, as much as she could while still avoiding Zedd's tainted aura. If she drew _that_ power to her, she knew she would be lost. As the seconds passed, Zedd watched her and did not move, looking haughty, as if he had already won and was only waiting for her to realize it.

Didn't he know she never gave up that easily?

The air filled with pink light and began to crackle with power. Zedd pulled back slightly, as if even being near that power was unpleasant for him. As far as she was concerned, that was a good thing.

"You cannot defeat me, Kimberly," he told her, and her temper flared. At the same time, the pink glow intensified. Zedd was undeterred. "You can only join with me. Now that your husband is dead, there is nothing to keep you from joining me as my queen."

"He is _not_ dead," she spat. "You may think you've won, but this battle is _far_ from over." Her mind raced, wondering if she could put her sword through Zedd's heart before he realized what was happening, or if she could simply use her magic to smite him where he stood. She could, she knew somehow. But if she did, she might not have the energy left to save Tommy.

For an agonizing moment, she hesitated, not sure whether to kill Zedd or save Tommy.

And suddenly, she saw past Zedd that Jason had come through the door, all blood-red armor and fiery fury. He said nothing, but stalked immediately toward Zedd as if there were nothing else in the world except the two of them. Kimberly realized with a start that Zedd was so focused on her and so confident that he had already won that he had no idea Jason was there at all. Hoping Tommy could wait a little longer, she determined to keep it that way.

She looked up and met Zedd's gaze, trying to look as hopeless and helpless as possible, as if she had no recourse left, as if he were on the brink of victory instead of facing imminent defeat.

Zedd laughed –

And then Jason was directly behind him.

His blood-red blade flashed in the torchlight, cleaving through metal and bone as easily as flesh. Zedd's head tumbled from his shoulders and rolled across the floor. The air filled with acrid black smoke – just like that, _it was over –_ but Kimberly did not even wait to see if Zedd was truly dead. She would let Jason worry about that. She trusted him to take care of it.

Right now the only thing that mattered was Tommy.

She rushed to him, aware that an immense amount of magical power still swirled dangerously in the air around her, threatening to lash out if she did not find a way to direct it or dissipate it soon. _Soon_, she promised as if it were a living thing that could understand her intent, _but Tommy comes first._

By some miracle he was still breathing, though only just. She cradled him against her, despair consuming her as she realized just how much she did not know about magic. She knew in her heart of hearts that magic could save him as long as he was still breathing, but she lacked the knowledge to do so; Dulcea had only taught her the rudiments of magical defense, and had not begun to teach her healing at all. She had not the slightest idea what to do, but she knew she _had_ to save him. She simply couldn't imagine life without him.

"Tommy, no," she murmured, feeling as his life-force grew weaker and weaker. Her eyes widened as she realized that she could indeed feel his life-force, monitoring him just as Dulcea had done for them all when they went into battle against Rita. She prayed that Dulcea was doing the same thing now, and would know what danger Tommy was in, and would come soon… but she knew she couldn't wait that long. _Tommy_ couldn't wait that long. A few more moments, and he would be gone if she didn't do something.

Looking at him, tears blurred her vision and streaked down her face. "I don't know how to heal you. I don't know what to do, but you can't leave me like this."

He did not answer; she did not know if he could even hear her at all.

She was afraid to remove the blade, which was still embedded in his flesh, but she clasped it between her hands and tried her best to find a place of calm. She knew enough about magic to know that calmness was imperative. Nothing would happen if she could not calm herself. Somehow, she managed to set aside her frantic fear for Tommy enough to find that calm place where she could work magic. Her grasp on that calmness was tenuous at best, but she grabbed hold of every bit of magic that she could and reached out for Bryndis, and for the First Queen's wisdom.

_Help me!_ she thought desperately. She had no sense that Bryndis was there with her, but gradually she realized she _did_ have a better idea of what to do. She vaguely felt the presence of another woman, not her mother or her grandmother, but perhaps six or seven generations removed… and remembered Queen Avelyn Hart, who had been a renowned healer. She could feel her ancestor guiding her, letting her know what to do. Slowly, carefully, she funneled her power through the blade and into Tommy.

_Let him be strong. Let his flesh heal, and his wound mend cleanly._ She did not know whether she actually spoke the words aloud, or if it was all in her head. She had no idea where the words came from, but she could not seem to stop them. _His power is mine and my power is his. His blood is mine and my blood is his. His life is mine and my life is his. While I live, do not let him die._

What she still did not know was how to get the sword out of him without killing him, or actually heal his wounds.

He was breathing in time with her now, and she fought against rising panic, knowing she had tied his life to hers. _I'm keeping him alive,_ she realized, half in awe, half in terror. What if she messed this up? What if he died anyway? What if…

Horrified, she realized she was losing her grip on her magic, and that much of her power was flowing uselessly away into the air around her. If she didn't get a handle on it soon, she knew she would have little chance of saving Tommy or stopping the outward flow of power. She wasn't sure what would happen when she exhausted that store of power, but she knew she didn't want to find out. _Don't panic, don't panic,_ she repeated mentally, though it did her no good.

"I'm here, Kimberly," Dulcea said suddenly, and Kimberly could have wept in relief. "Let me help."

Even though Dulcea was leaning heavily on Billy and was clearly in no condition to be working miracles, Kimberly was only too happy to let her do just that. She closed her eyes as Billy walked Dulcea over, and let Dulcea's magic intertwine with her own… guiding and directing her power to where it was most needed. She knew she should have been exhausted, but somehow using her magic this way didn't seem to drain her energy the way it always had before. Instead she let Dulcea have as much power as she needed. She would have given it all, forever, just to have Tommy back.

Dulcea held her hands over Tommy's chest, blue strands of magic flowing between them; Kimberly noted that the black smear had ceased to spread across his armor, but there was no outward sign yet that his injury had started to heal. And yet somehow, she knew that it had.

She watched and watched as Dulcea skillfully wove the healing spell. She watched as Billy, under Dulcea's careful instruction, removed the sword and Tommy's flesh began to knit back together. She watched, barely breathing, hoping that she was helping enough, and eventually reached the point where she could no longer feel her body or her magic, and watching was all that she could do. The rest would be up to Dulcea.


	38. Respite

Zedd's death seemed to lift a veil from over the land of Phaedos. As the last of his magic began its long fading, the castle at the heart of Phaedos returned to its original splendor, as if it had never been touched by his dark and twisted magic at all. Deep in the depths of the castle, there rekindled a spark of life that had been extinguished for a thousand years and more. Stone shattered and sloughed away, crumbling into dust that seemed only too happy to drift away and disappear on the slightest breeze, and the people who had lived in the castle became free once more. For them, it was as if no time had passed since Zedd's conquest.

The release went further than that, spreading slowly in waves across the countryside. Twisted forests shriveled away to reveal plentiful fields, nearly ready for harvest against the impending winter. Time worn and ruined villages sprang back to life as if they had never been abandoned, their inhabitants also freed from the stone prisons that had held them prisoner for a millennium. It would take months, perhaps years, for the effects of Zedd's long domination to fade fully from the land, but his evil influence would indeed fade.

Dulcea missed most of the immediate transformations. It took nearly every bit of energy she could muster to undo the damage Zedd had done to Tommy Oliver at the end. Without Kimberly's assistance, she did not think she could have managed it at all, not after having been Zedd's prisoner beforehand.

Tommy would bear an impressive scar until the end of his days, but he would live. And when she had finally, truly been certain of that, Dulcea had lost consciousness and slept. In some ways, she had feared to wake, because it might have been ten months or ten years or a hundred or more in between falling asleep and waking, but to her surprise when she opened her eyes again she found it had been merely three days. Yet in those three days, much had changed.

The people of Phaedos, those who had chosen to remain in their homeland a thousand years before, now walked the land again, finally released from their long captivity. Most of these, Dulcea would have been happy to do without. They were the beaurocrats, the elites, those with enough folly to think Zedd's rise was of little concern to them.

Worse, they'd decided Jason was their rightful emperor.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another, as Zordon would have said.

And Zordon was her first order of business. She awoke, ascertained the current situation, slipped past the guards posted outside the room – or cell, knowing the denizens of old Phaedos and their opinion of her – in which she had awoken, and went to find Billy. Her instincts served her true, and she found the archivist going through some of Zedd's papers high up in one of the towers, and the large quartz crystal in which Zordon was imprisoned hung on its chain around his neck. He'd even had the good sense to send the Phaedans away.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Billy was alive and well, and he looked up when she entered the room and smiled when he saw her. "I am glad to see you awake again, Dulcea," he said. "We've been worried about you."

"Thank you," she murmured, surprised to see that with Zedd's demise she could indeed now speak as freely as she wished. "I was hoping you would have found Zordon by now, and I'm pleased to see that you did. Is he all right?"

"It's difficult to say," Billy admitted, getting up from his place at the enormous desk and bringing the crystal over for her to examine. "He has been completely unresponsive to any of our attempts to communicate. We could not tell if it might be something Zedd did, or a part of the spell that binds him."

Dulcea gently took the crystal from him and held it in her cupped hands, seeking mentally for the sense that was Zordon. It was there within the crystal, but very faint. "His power is weakening," she murmured, releasing the crystal so that it fell back against Billy's chest. "He will not survive much longer."

"I thought he was immortal," Billy muttered. He likely had not intended for her to hear, but she had.

"He is," she told him. "And so am I. But so were Zedd and Rita. We are granted a much greater lifespan than that of a mortal, and we do not die of old age or illness, but we can be killed. And that is what is happening here: Zordon is dying. Slowly, as the spell drains his power."

"But don't spells break when the caster dies?"

She smiled faintly. "You are correct, Billy. But there are ways of preventing that, such as binding the spell with a crystal." Anticipating what his next question would be, she elaborated, "It can be done, but it is risky work. Only the most desperate or most reckless of sorcerers will attempt such a thing. Zedd was not that reckless, or that foolish, but in her hatred Rita was."

Billy looked down at the crystal sadly. "Is there anything we can do?"

"If there is a solution, you will find it here, among Zedd's things."

"Me?"

"Yes. I have much to do, and there is no one I trust more than you to find an answer for Zordon."

She thought to say more in praise of his unrelenting search for knowledge, but decided against it. She had a feeling that simply leaving Zordon in his care would be enough.

That problem solved to the best of her ability, Dulcea went in search of her next objective. She found Aisha with Rocky and Adam, sitting in an out of the way corner of the castle courtyard, and guessed from the way they were clustered together that the three of them had been nigh-inseparable since the castle siege. Aisha had a wary look in her eyes, and Dulcea could no longer sense the protective power of the yellow topaz around her; it would have taken a great force to separate her from the gem's magic. Knowing that the cause for this change was most likely an attack from Zedd, she felt a pang of sympathy for the once-vibrant young woman.

"Aisha, Rocky, Adam," she said, smiling in spite of herself to see them all well. She had not thought to see all of her mortal companions survive a battle with Lord Zedd, but they had surprised her.

"Dulcea!" Aisha's eyes lit up. "You're okay!"

"You doubted?"

Aisha fixed her with a stern look. "You passed out after saving Tommy. We didn't know what to think. It seemed like you might have used up too much of your power to save him."

"It will take more than that to kill me," Dulcea assured her. She would have liked nothing more than to spend the rest of the afternoon idling in the courtyard with Aisha and her friends, but there were other things she needed to see to, first. She would have more time to spend with them later, once she had sorted things out. Looking not just to Aisha, but to all three of them, she said, "Tell me what happened during the fight with Lord Zedd."

Aisha directed an uncomfortable look to Rocky.

"I know only what I could sense from within the dungeon," she prompted. "Please, tell me the rest. I have not been to see Kimberly and Tommy yet, and I would not go to them unprepared."

"Aisha and Kat snuck in through the sewer," Rocky began, and related the tale such as he knew it, concluding with Zedd's attack and Aisha's collapse and slow recovery.

"I still have the topaz," Adam murmured.

"And I still don't want it back," Aisha said, more to Dulcea than Adam. "I don't know why, I just… I don't want it."

"You do not have to take it back now that it has been separated from you," Dulcea assured her, though in her experience it was passing curious to encounter a human who would shun power when they could seize it instead. "You need only to safeguard it, and when you return home, I will show Kimberly how to restore it to her crown."

Finally it seemed as if the shadow had truly lifted from Aisha's eyes. "Thank you, Dulcea. I'd like that."

She was reluctant to take her leave of this peaceful scene, but she had thus far only attended to half of her charges. She went high into the castle's main keep next, after having received assurances from Rocky and Adam that they were well, to the fine suite of rooms where Kimberly and Tommy were being housed as guests of honor. Tommy was weak after his ordeal, but healing well. Kimberly, on the other hand, was chafing at the confinement.

"I feel like they're keeping me here on purpose!" she raged, hardly pleased at all to see Dulcea. Her happiness at having her husband still in one piece was overshadowed by what she saw as a new form of captivity. In some respects, Dulcea feared she was correct, but it would not do to distract her with such talk now.

"If I can, I will intercede on your behalf," she promised, though she had little hope of being able to sway the locals. "But first I would like to speak with you and Tommy for a bit, if he's up to it."

"At least you'll actually talk to me," Kimberly muttered sourly. "Unlike the maids and the lords around here. Can you believe they'll only listen to Jason? Like I'm _nobody_. I'm the Queen, damn it!"

Dulcea was faintly pleased to see Kimberly's feathers ruffled like that. Her ire might come in handy later on. For the moment, Dulcea settled herself in a chair that was positioned near the fine bed where Tommy was dozing.

"His life force is very strong," she murmured, meeting Kimberly's worried gaze. "You did very well."

"I figured out how to do that, at the end," Kimberly told her. "When he was dying, I could feel his life-force. And my own… and Jason's when he came into the room and killed Zedd. I knew I should've been afraid when this guy showed up in weird, blood red armor, but I wasn't. I knew it was him. I knew he was going to stop Zedd, so I could save Tommy." She paused, looking confused. "There was no way I could have known any of that. I took a stupid risk trusting him like that…"

"Some of that is magic," Dulcea confirmed, "and some of that, I suspect, is just instinct. Either way, it served you well."

After gaining permission, she inspected Tommy's wound and found herself pleased with his progress. He could be back on his feet again in as few as a couple of days.

When she was done, Kimberly pulled her aside and said, "There's something else I need to show you."

She took Dulcea into a small adjoining room that had probably once been intended for a servant. There, she had stored Tommy's dragon-enchanted armor. It shone faintly, silvery-white and almost glowing even though this interior room was not lit. It was in fine condition save the breastplate, which was marred with a large black mark where Zedd's sword had pierced it. There was a matching scar across the back. Dulcea had done what she could to mend the armor as well as its bearer, but although she had put the metal to rights again, she had not been able to heal that black mark.

"It looks like a star," she mused.

Kimberly made a face. "I hate it." There were tears in her eyes. "I want him back the way he was, my knight in shining white armor."

"He has touched death, Kimberly," Dulcea said quietly. "His body may be healed, but he will never be the same, and no magic can make it so."

"Somehow I thought you'd say that," Kimberly said, sounding resigned, as if Dulcea had merely confirmed what she already knew. "Is there nothing else I can do for him?" She shook her head and turned away from that tiny, dark room. "He has nightmares and… and so do I."

She ought to have known that something like that was likely to happen, but in the moment her only concern had been saving Tommy's life. In time, she knew both he and Kimberly would heal, and she had no doubt at all that together they would find happiness and safety again. But for now, she still knew a trick or two… and a bit of herb-lore. "I will see if I can find the ingredients for a draught that will help you to sleep. The herbs used to grow near here, though now there's no telling."

Kimberly nodded slowly, but she looked no happier than she had before.

"You have won an important victory," Dulcea assured her. "And now you must rest and recover. Healing will come in due time."

"But I feel so restless, and I have so many questions…"

"And I will answer them happily, now that I can."

Kimberly's expression darkened. Dulcea followed her to sit beside Tommy's bed again. "Now that you can?" she asked.

Dulcea nodded. "During our last confrontation, Zedd and I… exchanged curses. My curse was intended to destroy him, but I succeeded only in disfiguring him. Though I suppose for a man as vain as Zedd was, it amounts to much the same thing. His curse was more devious though, and he used it to control my speech. Its power grew less the further I strayed from Phaedos, but it was always there, thwarting my best efforts to remove it."

"Is that why you would never speak plainly or give us any real answers?"

Dulcea nodded. "And as I could not speak against his will, I could not tell anyone what had befallen me."

"Sneaky," Kimberly muttered. "But now that he's dead… now what? The people of Phaedos, they won't listen to me. And they keep saying Jason's their new emperor."

That was a problem that was likely to be quite thorny. While Dulcea understood where the claim came from, Kimberly did not know the history of Phaedos and clearly no one had bothered to explain it to her. "In Phaedos, the emperor is the person who takes over when the previous emperor dies," Dulcea explained. "When the emperor dies of natural causes, a replacement is found or an heir is named… but when an emperor is killed, the one who killed him can become the new emperor, if the council agrees to it. Because Jason killed Zedd, the old emperor, and freed all of Phaedos from his evil grip, as far as they are concerned he is now their emperor."

Kimberly let out an exasperated sigh. "That is the _stupidest_ thing I've ever heard! What's to stop people from just killing the existing emperor so _they_ can be emperor?"

"The council, presumably." Beyond that, Dulcea kept her opinion to herself. "It is their ancient method of governing themselves."

"Yeah, well, Jason's not too happy about it, either," Kimberly muttered.

Dulcea had not imagined he would be, and wished she had had a chance to warn him. But she had not foreseen that he would kill Zedd himself, and there was nothing she could do about that now. "How is he handling it?" she asked, hoping to steer the conversation in another direction.

"About as well as he handles anything," Kimberly said. "He broods a lot and avoids people when he can. Although they're not making it easy. It's like they think he'll like them better if they keep heaping accolades on him. Don't they even want to get to know him before they make him their ruler?"

It still felt strange to be able to speak openly after all this time. "All they care about is that he put an end to Zedd," she told Kimberly. "But give them time. If Jason doesn't bend to their whims, their tune will change."

"I have a _really_ bad feeling about all of this," Kimberly confessed. "But Jason won't talk to me. He won't talk to any of us, and he won't say why."

"I am not sure what he endured at Zedd's hands, but I know it was unpleasant." Knowing what she did of Zedd, she could venture a guess, but she did not want to burden Kimberly with that knowledge just yet. Right now, the young Queen had enough to worry about just taking care of her husband. "I will see what I can do for him," she promised. "For now, you and Tommy focus on recovering. And when you're feeling up to it, there are some things I'd like to teach you about your magic."

Kimberly's face lit up at that, and she was so pleased with the idea that it did not seem to bother her that Dulcea took her leave shortly after that. She would have liked to spend more time with each of her mortal companions, but she suspected that the Phaedans would notice her absence soon enough… and they would expect their own reckoning with the sorceress who had failed them all those years ago. Selfish though it might be, she wished to see her mortal friends in their victory before letting the wrath of Phaedos sour her own sense of triumph.

She had intended to search for Jason immediately after her meeting with Kimberly, but she came across Katherine first. The poor girl looked even more lost and out of place than she had during the journey to Phaedos. Dulcea didn't have the heart to simply pass by and ignore her as the Phaedans did.

"Hello, Katherine," she said pleasantly.

Kat tried to hide her astonishment. "Oh, Dulcea! You're awake!"

"I am. And I have missed a few things. Tell me, how have you been?"

"I'm… doing okay. Everything here seems so strange!" Katherine said. "Although I suppose it doesn't to you, since you've been here before. But it's so different from home. The people here have very strange ideas…"

Dulcea smiled ruefully. "I had intended to explain something of the customs of Phaedos before we arrived at this point, but Zedd interfered with my plans." But she refused to be deterred. "Now tell me truly, Kat. How have you been?"

Kat's brave expression faltered slightly. "I feel lost," she admitted, almost grudgingly. "No one seems to have time for me. I don't know what I ought to be doing. Billy is completely caught up in his work, Jason won't speak to me or anybody else, and everyone else is still recovering from the battle."

"I think that Kimberly could use your companionship more than ever right now," Dulcea confided. "She is very overwhelmed and frightened right now, though she tries not to let it show."

"Really?" Kat gave a self-deprecating smile. "She always seems like she has everything under control, at least to me."

Dulcea almost laughed at that. "She certainly likes people to think that. But quite often, your Queen feels every bit as out of her depth as you. I think she would like to have a companion for a while, if only to distract her from the boredom of tending to her husband."

"How is Tommy doing?" Kat ventured shyly. Dulcea knew that he was a touchy subject for Katherine and Kimberly, and wished for the hundredth time that Rita had never managed to sink her claws into an innocent like Kat.

"He is healing well." She did not say more, but instead excused herself, knowing that curiosity would spur Katherine to action more surely than anything else.

And that left only Jason. She knew it was urgently important that she see him and assess the effects of Zedd's torture, but at the same time… she knew it would be best to let him come to her on his own terms. _Ah, Jason,_ she thought, _I had wanted all of this to be very different. I only hope that the damage is not too great to undo._

 

 

Jason was starting to wish that he had never been foolish enough to risk traveling to Phaedos in the first place. Back home it had seemed like an adventure. He'd thought that maybe he'd found his destiny, as silly as that seemed now.

Now, he realized, what he'd found was pain and suffering and a thousand responsibilities he didn't want. On some level, he knew he ought to be proud that he had put an end to a man as cruel and powerful as Zedd, but the victory felt hollow. He had destroyed the evil, self-proclaimed emperor of Phaedos and in so doing freed the fabled Kingdom of Heaven. But he had not yet found the Sword of Power. All he had done, really, was put his friends in danger. They had nearly died for his folly. And for what?

He had no idea.

He wasn't even sure what he would do with the Sword once he got it. And he was starting to think that, if it was as powerful as Dulcea said it was, maybe it was better if no one ever picked it up again. He could imagine how easy it would be to become something like Zedd if he held such power in his hands, imposing his will on those less powerful than he, reshaping the land itself to his whim.

But at the same time, he still felt a faint longing for it. Just to see it. Just to see if he was, indeed, some sort of 'chosen one'. If fate had somehow contrived to forge a new heir for the Sword's long-lost power… there had to be a reason for it, right? It seemed like there should be, but he couldn't think of one.

He was tired of trying to think of one, too. All he really wanted right now, he decided, was some peace and quiet. Some time to himself without fifteen people asking him how he was feeling and telling him again and again how wonderful he was for ending Zedd's reign. He'd freed the Phaedans, but he wasn't fool enough to think they weren't trying to ensnare him by naming him their new ruler. Whether they knew his true purpose or not, he couldn't say. But at the very least they knew him for a powerful warrior, and they wanted to make sure he was on their side.

Suddenly he wondered if they intended to ever let him leave. It was tiresome keeping away from the various lords and advisors and councilors of this-and-that, all of whom wanted to have words with him, and none of whom had any regard for any of his companions. The name of Dulcea, especially, was met with angry looks and short words. She'd only been given rooms in which to recover, instead of being thrown from the castle or returned to the dungeon, because Jason ordered it. And even then, his new "subjects" had insisted on posting guards outside her door because, they claimed, the sorceress could not be trusted.

When he pointed out that without her he never would have saved them, they simply ignored him.

If only it was so easy to get them to ignore him the rest of the time.

He hated skulking about in back hallways and darkened corners, but it was the only way to avoid the Phaedans he least wished to see.

Unfortunately, when he lingered too long alone, he found himself reliving the dark memories that Zedd had used to hurt him. It was as if, now that Zedd had put them foremost in his mind, he couldn't banish them.

And the worst part, the part he was afraid to admit to his friends, was that he still could not tell which were the real memories and which were the ones Zedd might have created just to hurt him more. He had hoped that the passing of time would clear his mind, but it was doing nothing of the sort. If anything, it was making things less and less clear.

He made his way slowly, stealthily toward Dulcea's rooms. He was not sure whether to expect her to be awake yet, when there had been no sign of her stirring for the past three days, but it would not do any harm to check again. At least when he had an objective, it gave him something else to focus on.

By now the guards knew him on sight. And although they seemed to like him well enough, they clearly disliked his association with a woman as dangerous as Dulcea. Each day they were more and more reluctant to allow him to see Dulcea, and today was no different.

"Are you sure?" one of them asked him when he inquired about Dulcea. "She's a danger, got too much power for anyone's good, and she's unreliable to boot."

It was the most anyone had been willing to tell him about their mistrust of his friend, but he was firm in his decision. "I would like to see how she is doing," he told them. "That is all." He wondered if he ought to tell them that he would keep coming to see how she was doing until she was back on her feet again, and decided it would probably just upset them.

The two guards exchanged a look but otherwise did not move.

"Let me in," Jason repeated. "Do I have to make that an order?"

Reluctantly, they stepped aside and let him through. As usual, Jason knocked softly on the door, and when he received no answer he went into the chamber where Dulcea was sleeping. Only this time, much to his surprise, she wasn't there.

The guards were clearly horrified, and clearly baffled as to how she had managed to escape without their notice. Before he took his leave, Jason gathered from their furious whispering that they considered this to be further proof that Dulcea was not to be trusted. He had to admit, he was mystified by her disappearance, but at the same time he had a feeling she was still somewhere in the castle. And looking for her would give him something to do.

 

 

Kimberly's very bad feeling lingered for a long time, even after Dulcea departed. She couldn't pintpoint exactly what felt so wrong to her, but the feeling would not subside no matter how she tried to trust in Dulcea's words and ignore the fear. And it was made all the worse because she had nothing to do but sit with Tommy and wait and hope.

Dulcea was right when she said he was healing well, though Kimberly hated to see him so scarred. It pained her to see him having nightmares so often and be unable to soothe him. He hardly woke, and when he did he was very weak… but she could see that he was getting stronger with each day that passed.

She hoped that someday he would be fully restored.

"If I had known something like this would happen," she murmured, sitting at his bedside and stroking his hair gently, "I never would have insisted on this."

But she _had_ known, deep down, that something like this _could_ happen. She only hadn't thought it could happen to Tommy. If anything, she had thought this journey was Jason's folly, and that it would lead to his tragic end.

Now she wasn't sure what she thought, other than _I wish I could go home_.

She was startled out of her longings for home by a timid knock on the door. Frowning, she rose and answered the door, and was surprised all over again to find Katherine on the other side.

"Hi," she said weakly, looking sheepish. "I- I wanted to see how you were holding up."

Kimberly smiled and ushered her in. She hadn't expected to see Katherine again until everything had calmed down, but she was glad to see a friendly face nonetheless. As she showed Kat to the small sitting area, she couldn't help but glance over at Tommy again. For the moment at least, he was still resting quietly. Dulcea thought it wouldn't be long before he would be up and about again, but sometimes Kimberly still didn't believe it.

"How is he?" Kat asked.

Kimberly sighed and sat down next to Kat. "I don't know. It's hard…" She hadn't realized quite how much she needed someone to talk to until that very moment. And at the same time, she didn't know what to say. She hardly even knew where to start.

Tommy made a strangled sound and thrashed under the blankets, in the midst of another nightmare, saving her the necessity of coming up with something to say. Instead she rushed to his side and clasped his hand in hers and did what she could to soothe him. It wasn't easy watching him like this, when he couldn't even seem to hear a word she said. And yet every time she hoped that he could somehow sense her presence, and at least know that she was there with him.

When he had finally calmed, she let go of his hand and turned back to Kat with a rueful look.

"Has this been happening often?" Kat asked quietly.

Kimberly nodded. "I don't know what to do about it, but Dulcea said she would try to help." She took her place beside Kat again and buried her head in her hands. "I feel so useless, Kat."

"You're not useless! You saved his life!" Kat protested, sounding so genuine in her conviction that it practically hurt Kimberly to hear it.

"And for what?" she asked miserably. "This?"

Kat waited for her to get a hold of herself and look up again before answering. "More than that," she said. "I know it. Just like I know you're meant for more than sitting shut up in here, where you can't stir up any trouble."

"You picked up on that, too?"

"Dulcea gave me a bit of a nudge," she admitted, "but yes." She smirked a little. "I think they're a little bit scared of you."

"That'd be a nice change," Kimberly muttered. "Usually when people find out I have this power, they want it for themselves." She was beginning to realize how lucky she really was, to have so many loyal friends that neither coveted her power nor feared it. Until now, she had all but taken them for granted, or so it seemed to her.

She spent the rest of the afternoon talking with Kat. For the first time in many, many days she felt almost relaxed. And for once, Tommy slept peacefully, without nightmares for a long time. It was almost… nice. She could almost forget all the awful things that had happened leading up to Zedd's defeat.

It was pleasant, the first time she had thought anything about this cursed land was pleasant. But as the afternoon wore on toward dusk, she felt with a strange certainty that it was not going to last. _Something_ was going to go wrong, even if it was just another of Tommy's nightmares.

Suddenly, something in her head _throbbed_. Kimberly pressed her hands to her temples, but it did little to help the sudden overwhelming _fear_ that welled up inside her. Knowing without knowing, she sensed something dark and horrible arise deep below the castle, and knew that her friends were in danger.

Unthinking, she stood. The world spun dizzyingly around her for a moment, but ceased its wild movements when she willed it. "Kat, please stay here with Tommy," she instructed. And then she ran – hurrying to find Jason and Dulcea, knowing that when she found them, she would find the dark thing she sought.

 

 

Jason found Dulcea in a secluded room in the depths of the castle, a room that resembled nothing so much as Rita Repulsa's tower. The walls were covered with shelves, some holding large books and others strange artifacts that defied explanation. An enormous mirror dominated the far wall, and several large tables were piled high with books and papers and scattered throughout the room.

Dulcea was idly perusing the books near the door Jason had entered from, but she barely seemed to notice his presence. As far as he was concerned, that was a good thing, since he had found this place while searching for some solitude. All the uproar over his victory against Zedd was starting to feel like a bit much. And with all the talk of destiny and magic on top of that, he needed some time to himself.

He would have liked nothing better than to lose himself in his training for a while, preferably by sparring against a good opponent like Tommy or Zack, but he would have been too easy to find on the training field so he settled for investigating this strange room instead. Unfortunately, none of the books appeared to be written in languages he could understand and he had no idea what any of the various artifacts might be. After his experiences in Rita's tower, he knew better than to touch anything, but one of the objects in the room kept drawing his attention. It was a large and ornate basin, big enough to fit a person, set on a low pedestal, and it seemed at first glance to be filled with water. But the liquid was inky black and had a strange quality to it, like something out of a dream.

"Hey Dulcea," he began, "what's this?"

She replaced the book she had been reading on the shelf and came over to peer into the pool beside him. "It is a scrying pool," she told him. Anticipating his next question, she added, "It allows a sorcerer to see things that are happening far away."

He remembered seeing something similar in Rita's tower, but that scrying pool had been broken and empty. Seeing one that was still intact was fascinating by comparison. "Does it still work?"

"It should," she answered cautiously.

"Could we use it?" he asked, struck by a sudden idea.

"Perhaps. What would you like to see?"

"I'd like to see how Zack and Trini have been doing," he admitted with a grin.

Dulcea almost smiled. "We can try."

She said a few words in a language that was foreign to him and the surface of the scrying pool shimmered in response. At first Jason could see nothing different, but as he watched an image appeared on the water.

Reflected on the water's surface, he saw Zack, wandering alone and forlorn through some barren and frozen land. Watching, Jason could almost feel the chill wind howling against him. Abruptly the image changed to reveal Trini: dirty, emaciated, and clearly terrified, a prisoner in a stone fortress. These horrifying images barely had time to register in Jason's mind before they vanished and were replaced by seething violet waves.

The water within the pool began to bubble and froth, finally erupting into a series of what looked for all the world like tentacles. Dulcea leaped back with a cry of alarm. Jason reached instinctively for his sword, but the water tentacles had already seized Dulcea by the time he could draw his blade. They hauled her up, grasping her at wrists and ankles, threatening to pull her into the water.

For a moment, Jason could only stare in horror and wonder if his sword would have any effect on whatever was attacking Dulcea. And then Kimberly came out of nowhere, charging past him and slamming her shoulder against the side of the basin. It shook under the force of the blow, sloshing water onto the floor.

"Help me!" she hissed, ducking beneath an errant tentacle that made a grab for her.

Jason had not even heard her come into the room, but he knew better than to ask questions or risk letting that thing get a hold of her, too. He hastened to join her, noting that when he slashed at one of the tentacles that came too close, the severed portion became only clear water as it fell to the ground.

With their combined strength, they were able to dislodge the scrying pool's basin from its pedestal and send it crashing to the floor. The stone basin cracked into pieces on impact, and water flooded across the floor... and the moment the water spilled out, the tentacles disappeared. Dulcea hit the floor hard, and stayed where she had fallen. She looked visibly shaken by the experience, but otherwise unharmed.

"What was that?" Jason demanded.

Dulcea looked to him and Kimberly with a gaze that could chill the blood, and suppressed a shudder. "That was Ivan Ooze."


	39. Consigned to Oblivion

When Zack awoke, he was sure he was going to be sick at any moment. The ground lurched beneath him and his ears were filled with a deafening creaking sound. A ship?

He heard Trini sob nearby and opened his eyes. As he took in the wagon's dark interior, it all came rushing back: a trade caravan out of long-lost Taye, a man named Sunan Lin with a letter for Trini, a betrayal. He and Trini had been drugged and tossed into the back of this wagon and they had been on the road ever since. The lurching sensation probably came from crossing uneven terrain, but their prison was entirely closed off from the outside world and it was impossible to tell where they were, much less where they were going. They could be anywhere by now.

It was very dark inside, but his eyes were accustomed to the gloom. Trini was lying on her side with her back facing him. Even without seeing her face, he could tell she was miserable. And come to think of it, so was he. But as the drug wore off and he became more and more aware, the chills and nausea began to pass.

"Trini," he began. His voice almost cracked, his throat was so dry. "Are you okay?"

"No," she said shakily, after a long pause. "I feel so sick. Everything hurts."

He felt a pang of sympathy. He had no idea exactly what they were being drugged with, but even a small amount was enough to knock him out. And Trini had it worse. She was getting sicker by the day.

With some effort, he dragged himself over to her. From outside the cart, he heard the sound of voices speaking the language of Taye. It was a language he barely understood, so he didn't bother trying to make out what they were saying. At this point it surprised him that they were still keeping up the pretense of being Tayene merchants sent to retrieve their master's wayward daughter. He didn't have to know who or what they really were to know they were not at all what they had seemed to be.

"We'll get out of this," he promised Trini in a whisper. He wasn't sure how they would manage it, but he was absolutely certain they would find a way. They had to.

The cart jerked to a stop before he could say more, and he knew to keep silent. He briefly considered using his powers as the Black Knight to effect an escape, since their captors either hadn't managed to get his ring away from him or hadn't realized what it was. But then it was too late. Their captors opened the back of the wagon and the element of surprise was lost.

Zack squinted against the glare of sudden sunlight and felt sick all over again as two men hauled him out of the wagon and forced him to his feet. His vision swimming, he thought he saw two others do the same to Trini. Trees loomed close on either side of the wagon, as they had for the past several days, and afternoon sunlight filtered blindingly through their gold-tinged leaves. The man who had called himself Sunan Lin gave an order that Zack could not interpret, and the prisoners were escorted into the forest to do their business.

It was embarrassing to be so closely supervised, but he supposed it had to be even worse for Trini. He tried not to think too hard about it. In the meantime, he tried to figure out just how many of Sunan's men were still with them. It wasn't all of them, he could tell that much, but he had no way of knowing where the rest might be.

When he was done, his guards marched him wordlessly back to the wagon. After a few minutes, the other men returned with Trini and the two prisoners were given some water and a small amount of food to eat. Even as he ate it, Zack knew it was as drugged as every other meal they had given him. But there wasn't much he could do about that. He could eat the drugged food or he could slowly starve to death, or face the possibility of being forced to eat. And since he would need his strength when he finally did find a chance to escape, there was no question.

The drug took effect quickly, as it always did. Zack didn't even try to climb back into the wagon on his own. If they wanted him in there, they would have to hoist his dead weight into it. Which they did without gentleness or complaint.

Zack fought against the effects of the drug, more out of sheer stubbornness than any hope that he might resist. In the end, he could do little more than lay where they dropped him. He felt the cart rock slightly as they tossed Trini in after him, and then for a long time he knew nothing more.

And so it went, day after innumerable day. Sunan and his men kept their prisoners drugged nearly all the time, which made it difficult to tell how much time was passing. Sometimes it was dark when they were hauled out of the cart, and sometimes it was light. There was never any indication of where they were going, so Zack could not even try to estimate how long it might take to get there. Whatever their intended destination, he hoped for Trini's sake that they would get there soon.

For his part, Zack was able to handle the drugging pretty well, but as the days crept by he began to worry about Trini in earnest. She grew sicker and sicker and ate less and less as the days passed.

"She's going to die if you don't stop drugging us," he pointed out to Sunan one day. He had no choice but to stress Trini's declining health to them. He was sure she was the one they wanted, and that he'd just been taken as a matter of convenience, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out why they would want to kidnap Trini in the first place.

But their captors no longer seemed to care whether Trini lived or died. The next time they were forced back into the cart, she could barely move. Zack hugged her tight and did not let go. She groaned a protest, but huddled miserably against him as their prison began to move again. She had always been skinny, but now she seemed made only of bones and ice cold flesh… and he couldn't help but wonder how much longer she could hold on.

 

 

Trini had experienced danger plenty of times before, especially recently, but she had never felt her very life leeching away like she did now. If not for Zack, she was sure she would not have made it even this far. The past few weeks had passed in a blur of misery and illness that seemed as if it would never end.

But today something had changed.

The cart had been stopped for a long time, and no one had come to retrieve them yet. And judging by how alert Trini felt, they had not been drugged at their last meal. She exchanged a silent look with Zack, both of them straining to hear what was going on outside their prison. Hardly daring to hope, she wondered if someone had finally discovered Sunan's treachery. But no, she did not hear the sounds of a streggle, only the uncharacteristically nervous voices of Sunan and his men. Their voices were so muffled that she could only make out one word in ten that was spoken.

What did they have to fear? She was almost afraid to find out.

A short while later, two of Sunan's men came to help them out of the cart. Without the pair of strong hands holding her up by the shoulders, Trini was sure she would have fallen to her knees. But when the man released her a few moments later, she was astonished to find that he apparently had no intention of binding her hands… and that she could stand on her own. Blinking in early morning light that hurt her eyes, she realized with horror that they were not standing by the side of some road or in the middle of some forest, but in the courtyard of a castle.

"Where are we?" she asked. She'd been trying to imitate Kimberly at her most imperious, but the sound was weak and her voice was rough from disuse.

"What do you want with us?" Zack asked, following her lead and sounding a good deal more frightening than Trini had managed to. Sunan Lin ignored him, and so did all of his men. He seemed to be waiting for something, though she did not have the least idea what it might be. While he waited, she took the opportunity to look around, seeking in vain for a possible escape route.

After spending so much time in the back of that cart, her senses felt dull and sluggish. Even so, she could tell that they were in big trouble. It might have been a shock to emerge from the cart and into a courtyard surrounded by thick stone walls, but it was also surprisingly clear that the castle had not been recently occupied, for it was in an obvious state of disrepair. Many of the stones seemed ready to crumble at any moment, and the whole place felt cold and damp. Strangely clouded water gathered in pools in the low-lying parts of the yard.

Trini shivered, hoping fervently that they had not been brought all this way only to be imprisoned in this inhospitable place. Zack took her hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly, and then Sunan must have receieved the sign he was waiting for. They were herded through a pair of enormous wooden doors, which seemed far newer than their surroundings but still looked ancient, and into the castle proper. It was very dark inside, almost a relief after the bright sunlight outside, as the only windows were occasional tiny arrow slits, and there were no other sources of light.

Holding torches aloft for light, their captors led them through a maze of empty corridors and stairs, always heading upward and inward, until they reached a hall that led toward a set of huge gilded doors. Those doors were the only thing they had seen so far that did not seem about to fall apart. Sunan and his men remained outside the doors, as if they were unwilling to go further, but one of the men ordered Zack and Trini to proceed. Trini glanced nervously at Zack, but he led her forward through the doors. What else could they do? If they tried to turn back, they would only be forced onward. If they tried to run, they would be caught again. They might as well just do as they were told and hope for the best.

The doors looked heavy, but they were not. It was easy to push them open and go past. The doors fell back into place behind them with a dull _boom_. The room beyond was as dark and empty as the rest of the castle had been, but slowly Trini became aware of a faint purplish glow up ahead. Fear gripped her heart as she realized she could make out a human form in the darkness. A man… could this be the man that had orchestrated all of this? She wasn't sure she wanted to find out, but it was obvious at this point that she had no choice. Zack's iron grip on her wrist propelled her forward, and she no longer had the strength to resist. But after a few more steps, even Zack would go no further.

The man had his back to them, but when they stopped he turned to face them. Trini recoiled in horror. Even in the gloom she could see that his skin was grey and wrinkled, sickly looking and almost… gooey.

"Welcome to my humble abode!" he announced, gesturing grandly. The effect was more creepy than grandiose, and the two prisoners stared warily in silence. It began to seem that their captor was waiting for them to say something.

"Who are you?" Zack finally demanded.

Trini had been afraid to ask, but she had to admit she was curious. Whoever this man was, he had gone to a lot of trouble to kidnap them and bring them here, and she had no idea why. What could he possibly hope to gain from them? Sure, Zack was a knight, but he was only a fosterling. He had no land and no real standing at court, so there was no hope of ransoming him unless this man intended to appeal to Jason's parents. And Trini was only a Queen's servingwoman, the daughter of merchants. She was of no value to kidnappers at all.

"Who am I?" the man asked, half shocked, half mocking. "I am Ivan Ooze!"

He paused dramatically, but the name meant nothing to Trini or Zack.

"Ah, yes, you wouldn't know who I am, would you?" Ooze pondered aloud. "You humans are so forgetful… well, no worry. I'll remind you soon enough."

Trini was quite certain she had never seen this man before in her life and therefore could not have forgotten him. She was equally certain that, mortal man or immortal sorcerer, he was out of his mind. She and Zack needed to find a way to escape before it was too late, but with Sunan and his men still standing between them and freedom, the odds were definitely stacked against them. Zack still had the ring that Kimberly had given him, but Trini was not sure how much good that would do them when they were this outnumbered and she was in no condition to fight. And especially when one of their enemies was a total unknown.

Could Zack keep her safe and fend off Ivan Ooze and all of Sunan's men, all at once? Her friend was noble and strong and brave, and she did not doubt he would fight to the bitter end to save her, but she did not think he could win this fight alone.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was mostly afraid of what Ivan Ooze might be capable of. Sunan and his men were sneaky and evil, but they were only men. Ooze seemed to be more than that. If he could command men like Sunan's crew and send them hundreds of miles to kidnap a girl and a knight, he had to be very wealthy or very powerful, and that meant he was dangerous. And the way he spoke – and the way he looked – made her think he probably possessed magical abilities, too.

She waited for him to elaborate on what he had said, hardly daring to breathe, but he was silent for a good long while. Absurdly, Jason's promise tore through her memory. _If you don't come back to me after taking care of whatever it is your parents want, I'm going to come looking for you._ It had pleased her when he first said it. Now she hoped he would forget all about her and never go looking for her even if she never returned home. Better that than letting her trail lead him to this, because whatever _this_ turned out to be, nothing good could come of it.

Ivan Ooze's expression turned from pride to malice suddenly, and Trini felt her heart drop.

"I imagine you're also wondering why you're here," Ooze said. Neither Trini nor Zack dared to answer him. "No need to look so frightened! You are my honored guests! I have a great purpose in store for the two of you, one I think you will both appreciate."

Trini had a feeling he was wrong.

She was right.

"You see," Ooze said, "I have been trying for a very long time to avoid the affairs of mortals. They're mostly such bothersome creatures that they just aren't worth my time. But every once in a while, one of them gets the idiotic idea that he needs to kill me." He gave a dramatic sigh. "They even went about making a magic sword that could actually hurt me once," he said, as if they ought to feel sympathy for his plight. "It's the only thing in all the world that can harm me."

By now, Trini was all but clinging to Zack's hand. She didn't know whether she wanted to run away or stand and fight. Ooze hadn't got that far in his story yet, but she knew he was talking about the Sword of Power, and just that simply things had started to add up. This wasn't a kidnapping. This was a trap for Jason, and she and Zack were going to be the bait. _No, no, no, this cannot be happening,_ she thought, but she knew it was.

"I tried to wipe out everyone who could use that damned sword ages ago," Ooze continued, oblivious to Trini's surging thoughts. "They made it awfully easy for me, tying it to the bloodline like that. All I had to do was kill them all, but somehow one of them escaped. I tracked down the last heir to the power some years ago, and I thought I'd taken care of the problem once and for all, very neatly, without having to kill anyone – because that's the kind of guy I am."

Trini's brow furrowed, dark suspicions clouding her mind.

"How did you manage that?" Zack asked, as if he couldn't stop himself.

"I'm so glad you asked that! It was a simple matter, really. The power to wield the Sword passes from father to son in a certain family line. For generations now, that line has dwindled and weakened, until there was only one son," Ooze explained. "I didn't even have to interfere! Now I could have gone myself and killed the poor sap that's last in the line, to make sure he would have no son of his own, but I'm not that kind of guy. I saw a better opportunity. Why kill him and go through all that trouble and get my own hands messy, when I could just give a little _push_ and get him hitched to your queen? He'd live, his only child would be a daughter, and the line would be broken forever. Everybody would win!"

Trini gasped as everything fell into place in her mind. Jason had nearly married Kimberly all those months ago, but that had only happened because… "The plague."

Ooze gave a wide, wicked grin. "It's ince to have the subtler points of my plans appreciated now and then. Yes, I created the plague. I knew if the royal parents died, that bratty princess would have to get married sooner rather than later, and her only real option for a husband was precisely the man I needed to get rid of. It was elegant. It was perfect." His expression darkened terribly "Until that wretched Rita Repulsa ruined all my plans."

All of this was enough to make Trini's head spin. She had never even heard of this man before, and yet if the things he was telling them were true, he had been manipulating all of them from afar for their entire lives. And he knew so much about them and their lives that it was difficult to deny that he spoke the truth.

"If that's true," Zack allowed, "why take us?"

"Because thanks to Rita's foolishness and that meddling Dulcea, the damned boy found the scabbard that belongs to the Sword and figured out his birthright," Ooze spat out viciously. Trini gripped Zack's hand even harder. "I had to find a way to distract him from his quest. Failing that, I needed a way to bring him here so I could kill him. You two fit the bill nicely: his best friends in the whole world. Do you really think he will leave you in danger just to find a magic sword?"

Trini glanced to Zack, but he was staring at Ooze in horror and not paying any attention to her at all. She wondered if Zack had realized what she had: that Jason had no way of knowing what had happened to them, and as long as he did not know he would be safe. But at the same time, they were at Ooze's mercy, and there was no hope of rescue. She wasn't even sure she _wanted_ to be rescued now that she knew what was at stake. She tugged at Zack's hand as if to say, _let's get out of here_, no longer caring that Ooze might attack them if they tried to run. But Zack wasn't willing to move just yet.

She tugged again, to no avail. Zack seemed to have decided to push for as much information as he could. "So all of this… it's just some elaborate trap for Jason?" he asked.

Ooze seemed to appreciate that. "Yes!" he said, surging down off the dais toward them in his excitement. The air seemed to grow damper and colder as he approached. Dark liquid began to seep up through the stones of the floor, shining dully in the gloom. "You've presented me with an unprecedented opportunity."

He did not explain what he meant by that, but for now Trini was happier not knowing. The ooze continued to rise up through the floor until it was ankle deep, surging in strange and unnatural patterns. Trini did not want any of it to touch her, but there was no escape from it. It was everywhere.

And then suddenly it gathered together into two great arms, like tentacles, and threw the doors at the back of the room open. Before the doors could swing shut again the ooze-arms reached out and caught hold of Sunan and his men and dragged them back into the room with them. The doors swung shut with a great _boom_, which sounded to Trini almost like _doom, _but the men did not even struggle against the ooze. They were frighteningly placid as the ooze carried them into the room and held them suspended a few inches off the floor.

"These men," Ooze said, "were not really men to start with. They were members of my army. Let's restore them to their original forms, shall we?"

Trini did not want to see their original forms, but she knew better than to protest. Ooze would not listen to her even if she did.

The ooze welled up, swallowing the men up as a cocoon subsumes a caterpillar. It clung there around them for several long minutes, shining and flowing and purple, before finally falling away. No longer were Sunan Lin and his compatriots recognizable as men. Rather, they had become insectoid – Sunan had taken the form of an enormous, man-like mantis, and each of his followers had taken on the aspect of some other insect.

For the space of a heartbeat, Trini stared in horror, wondering what in the world this display of power had to do with her and Zack, and the next thing she knew, Zack was dragging her out of the room.

 

 

Zack grabbed Trini's hand and pulled her after him, racing to get away from Ooze before he could do to them what he had done to Sunan and his men. Giant insects… the thought made his blood run cold and his skin crawl. The little, regular sized ones were bad enough, but this… Was Ooze planning to turn him and Trini into giant bugs, too?

Now, he realized, would probably be a good time to use his magic ring, but he would have had to let go of Trini to do that. She stumbled after him, barely keeping up and every bit as lost as he was.

"Zack," she gasped in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"I have no idea where we're going," he confessed. His muscles were burning even from this small amount of activity, after the long trip. "But we can't just stand there and do nothing while he does whatever he wants to us." They had to at least _try_ to escape.

She seemed to agree. "I don't think it matters where we go, as long as it's away from him."

They turned down one side corridor and then another, zig-zagging through the unfamiliar castle as best they could, trying not to follow an obvious path. Zack quickly began to feel frustrated, because Ooze or his goons were sure to be hot on their tail and there was still no sign of what he was looking for. He had hoped to find a stair leading down, so they could try to find their way back to the courtyard. What they would do from there, he did not know. All that mattered was getting away from Ivan Ooze and his evil magic.

It felt like they spent hours rushing through the castle, trying to retrace the steps they had taken when they first entered, but it was hopeless. As impossible as it was, it seemed almost as if the castle had rearranged itself since they first passed this way. "Okay," he muttered, releasing Trini and coming to a stop. There was no sign of Ooze or his minions, and there had not been for a long, long time. In fact, he wasn't even sure they'd been followed at all; he certainly hadn't stopped running long enough to look back until just now. For all he knew, Ooze was just letting them waste their energy, using his labyrinthine castle to trap them. "This is getting ridiculous."

Trini nodded wearily. "I'm starting to think there isn't a way out."

"But then why bother letting us run?" He knew why, but he had to ask anyway. As much as he knew the situation was hopeless and that Ooze _must_ be just toying with them, there was a part of him that steadfastly refused to give up. Jason had charged him with keeping Trini safe, and he meant to do just that. And not only that, he had no intention of dying in this castle, far from home and all the people he cared about.

Trini said nothing.

Zack met her gaze and smiled as encouragingly as he could. "Don't you give up on me," he chided. "We're going to get through this. Somehow." And then he put the onyx ring on his finger and felt the power rush through him; it felt as though he could fight forever or run forever. Anything, as long as it meant survival.

Back home, Trini had once told him the story of how her ring gave her the strength to save Jason when all hope had seemed lost. He remembered that story well, and only hoped his ring would do the same for him now. "Come on," he said. "Let's keep moving."

They did not run this time, but walked. He itched to move faster, but he knew Trini did not have magic to lend her strength the way he did, and mentally cursed the fact that she had given her topaz to Aisha. If Kimberly's magic could have aided both of them, they might actually have had a chance to escape.

After they had been walking for some time, they came at last to a stair. Zack was dismayed to see that it only led upward. He looked to Trini. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I don't like it," she admitted. "I don't know what we should do. This whole castle is just plain weird."

Zack had to agree, but it was the first way out of this hall – or off of this level – that they had found so far. He wasn't sure they should trust this first option, especially since it did not head in the direction they wished to go, but at the same time he worried that they might not find another way and would end up backtracking later. It seemed to him that their best bet was to keep moving in the hopes that that would make them more difficult for Ooze to find. And yet it still nagged at him: Ooze had made no obvious move to stop them when they fled. It was too easy.

Of course, they were still trapped in his castle of horrors, but Zack found himself wondering if Ooze could find and recapture them at any time he wanted. But in that case, why let them run around wasting all of their energy? He disliked the thought that Ooze was simply toying with them, letting their fear build while they exhausted themselves in a futile attempt to escape.

He hesitated a few moments more, then headed up the stairs. Trini followed warily. Zack half expected some sort of trap to spring on them the moment they started climbing, but nothing happened even when they emerged onto the next floor of the castle. There they found yet another dark and moldering hallway, which extended to the left and right of the door they had just emerged from.

"How big is this place?" Trini murmured. Just like her, Zack felt nearly overwhelmed by horrified awe.

They headed left out of the stairwell, figuring that any direction was as good as another in their current situation, but they had not gone far when they began to hear a strange gurgling sound. It seemed to come from the walls themselves, and then with horror Zack remembered how the Ooze had seeped up through the floor earlier. Why should Ivan Ooze bother to chase them down when he could simply wait for an opportune moment to send his ooze after them?

"The ooze!" Zack said, grabbing Trini by the arm again. "We've gotta get out of here!"

What had started as a slow trickle had become a flood by the time they reached the end of the hall. It opened onto another stairwell there, which only went up, just as the last one had. Having no real choice, they dashed up the stairs as quickly as they could. As they raced along the next hallway, Zack had to wonder if his magic ring could protect him from the ooze or not, and hated to think that he might survive while Trini might not.

Countless floors later, even Zack was at the end of his strength, and the ooze came crashing down the hallway after them like a wave. They came to one last stair, and he shoved Trini up it, turning and drawing his axe, wondering if weapons could do any good against the ooze.

"Zack!" Trini called, realizing that he was no longer following her. "Zack, don't do something stupid."

"It's not stupid," he protested. "Go, run!"

"Not without you."

The worst part was that he knew she meant it. Cursing, he turned and ushered her up the stairs – and not a moment too soon. The wave of ooze crashed against the wall and began to surge up the stairs after them.

This time, they did not emerge into another hallway, but found themselves on top of the castle itself. A frigid wind blew all around them, and Zack felt sorry for Trini, who was clad only in her now-tattered traveling clothes. But they did not have time to take in their surroundings. They raced away from the door as quickly as they could, rather than wasting time trying to bar it.

The castle keep was connected to the outer wall by a thin, arcing bridge without even a railing. Having no other choice, they hurried along this route as best they could, heedless of the hundred-foot drop on either side of them. Somehow, they made it across safely, but there their luck ran out. A tendril of ooze groped along the bridge after them, and from the towers at either end of the wall, Sunan and his men – or whatever they were now – emerged.

Zack dragged Trini to the edge of the wall with him and peered over the battlement. Far below, the water of the castle's moat churned sluggishly, but it looked like water, not ooze. He glanced to each side one last time and formulated a stupidly desperate plan, their only chance… and knew it would never work.

Given the choice between fighting giant insects and jumping into the moat, Zack would have chosen to jump every time. But Trini…

Trini was afraid of heights. She always had been, ever since he could remember. She stopped at the edge, shaking her head, and he didn't have the heart to push her. "No," she murmured, guessing his intentions. "I can't. It's too high. We'll die!"

"We have to," he told her. It seemed almost funny, that with someone like Ivan Ooze after them, it was her fear of heights that got her in the end.

But she just stood there, as if she were paralyzed, trapped between two worst-case scenarios. Zack sighed and drew his axe. "Fine," he said. "Then we'll make our stand here."

But Trini seemed not to hear him. "Your ring," she murmured. "It will protect you."

He had the time to ask, "What?" before he realized what she was doing. She'd backed up enough to give herself a running start, and then hurled herself toward him. Even weak as she was, she knew enough about fighting to know how to get him off balance, and his confusion worked in her favor. He was too stunned to react until it was too late: she'd already sent him stumbling off the top of the battlements. He grabbed for her, intending to pull her to safety with him, but she ducked out of the way.

The last thing he heard before he hit the water of the moat far below was Trini's scream as the ooze caught hold of her.

 

 

Trini opened her eyes blearily with the inexplicable sense that something very important had _changed_. Her heart was racing, and she had a vague memory of drowning in a rush of thick, purple fluid, but she was alive. Alive, but not alone.

There were no lights in the stone hall where she found herself, but she had no trouble seeing. The room was made entirely of hewn stone, but there was a deep basin set in the floor. Ivan Ooze lurked several feet away, on the same side of the basin, watching her with a vague sense of interest. Strangely, she found that she was no longer afraid of him.

"What did you do to me?" she demanded weakly.

He smiled faintly, as if pleased with his work. "I Changed you," he said, as if that explained anything. "It is not an easy spell to use even when the subject is willing – you should be honored that I took the time to use it on you."

"Changed me?" Her mouth would not quite form the words properly.

"Take a look at yourself," he suggested. "You will find that your form has been altered." She did as he said, feeling almost compelled to obey, and saw that her hands had indeed been changed. Her arms were covered with _fur_ and her fingers felt different from before, ending in sharp claws. Feeling gingerly along her face, she realized that that, too, had been altered in shape. Long fangs protruded from her mouth.

"Oh, gods," she murmured, wondering just how far the changes went.

"Don't act so alarmed," he scolded. "As I recall, you have already met another woman that I Changed, once upon a time… though she came to me and asked for the procedure to be done."

"Scorpina," she realized, wondering just how far back in time all of these villains had been intertwined.

"None other." He went on, "You will find that, like her, your speed and strength have been augmented, and your lifespan adjusted accordingly, though you now bear external characteristics similar to the animal spirit of your choice. Or in this case, of my choice: the tiger." He seemed inordinately proud of what he had done. Trini felt horrified… ashamed… lost… and somehow, _resigned_.

"It will take three days for the full effect to occur," he lamented. "But once the transformation is complete, it will be permanent."

Three days… Trini was not sure whether to feel relieved about that. There was simply no hope of Jason or her other friends rescuing her in such a short time, even if they knew what had happened to her. And even if they did, she doubted if they had the knowledge or the power to free her from this insidious spell. As far as she was concerned, it would be better if they simply never found out.

But that wasn't what Ooze wanted.

Ooze wanted Jason to come here, to this castle, so he could destroy him. She knew that without a doubt. The only questions that remained were the specifics of his plan.

"So… what now?" she asked, hoping he might tell her something useful.

"Now, we wait for your foolish friend to come and save you," Ooze said, his tone filled with glee.

"But Jason has no idea that you captured me and Zack," she pointed out. "And even if he did, he'd have no idea where to find you." It frightened her how eager she felt to share ideas and information with him, but at the same time she could not help herself. It was almost as if he was somehow exerting control over her.

Ooze smiled cruelly. "My dear, while you were unconscious and the Changing spell was only just beginning to take effect, I made my presence and my plans abundantly clear to your friends Jason and Dulcea. They know that you are here. They know where you are. And they will come for you. And when they do, you will help me kill them."


	40. The Dragon's Den

Jason's mind reeled from everything that had just happened. It had all happened so fast, he'd barely had a chance to process it. "Ivan Ooze?" he asked. It sounded almost like a name, but he couldn't be sure.

Dulcea's face was grave. She looked as if she had aged years in mere moments. "He is the most powerful sorcerer that has ever walked the earth," she explained. She was still huddled on the floor where she had fallen after the attack; it took both Jason and Kimberly to get her back on her feet and keep her steady. "I do not know much about him," she admitted. "Only that he is vastly powerful and ancient beyond measure, and that he would like nothing better than to see the world fall into evil forever."

Kimberly looked to Jason with dark, worried eyes, but her question was for Dulcea. "First Rita, then Zedd, now this Ivan Ooze, whoever he is. Is this ever going to stop, or are we just going to keep running into bigger, meaner bad guys?" she asked, her tone quiet but caustic. "Because I, for one, am getting sick of fighting."

Jason couldn't have disagreed more. He knew without a doubt that somehow this Ooze guy had gotten his hands on Zack and Trini. And he would kill a hundred evil sorcerers if that was what it took to get them back safe and sound.

Oblivious to Jason's seething thoughts, or just ignoring them for the moment, Dulcea replied, "There are many forces in the world, Kimberly. Some are good. Some are evil. And there are many that are neither good nor evil, but only become so by the whim of those that use them."

"So this might never end," Kimberly concluded gloomily. Jason knew she was thinking about Tommy and wondered uncharitably if, for the sake of a moment's peace, she would be content to let Trini and Zack languish in some immortal madman's dungeon.

"Through your own power, you might one day have attracted attention despite all of Zordon's attempts to keep you hidden," Dulcea went on. "But in slaying Zedd and Rita, you sent out a warning that all of their ilk could sense. What that will mean in the long term, I cannot begin to guess. They may take from Zedd's death that you are not to be trifled with, or they may decide that you are a threat which must be eliminated. Only time will tell."

She turned her gaze to Jason. "But if any of them has discerned your true purpose in coming to Phaedos… you will be pursued until the end of your days."

"Screw the Sword," Jason blurted out angrily. "I'm getting my friends back. The rest can wait."

Dulcea paled. "Jason, you must think before you act. Ooze has laid a trap here and baited it with your dearest friends. Do not walk blindly into it!"

"What do you suggest, then?" he asked.

"Obtain the Sword of Power first," she decided. "It's the only real hope of defeating Ivan Ooze."

"I don't care about defeating him," he retorted, hating the idea of any delay. "I care about saving Zack and Trini."

He stormed out of the scrying room without waiting for a response, leaving Kimberly and Dulcea to stare at each other in bewilderment. He knew why they were confused: he didn't sound like himself. But he didn't feel like himself, either. He felt angry and guilty and filled with his own confusions, and he was certain that somehow having Zack and Trini back would make all of that hurt less. And if he got to smash a few skulls along the way, all the better.

Kimberly called after him, but he just kept walking. He knew her too well; despite what he might think in the moment in anger, he knew she wanted to save Zack and Trini every bit as much as he did. She would probably even insist on coming with him if it came down to it. He couldn't let her do that. This quest was folly, he knew that for sure. She was a Queen. She had a kingdom and people to protect. He wasn't willing to drag her into his mess, not when Tommy needed her.

He almost thought to leave right that very moment, so Kim wouldn't have a chance to follow, but he knew he couldn't. He didn't have the slightest clue where to find Ivan Ooze in the first place. He would need Dulcea for that, but he would need to prepare first. She would do everything in her considerable power to dissuade him, and he would have to not only stand his ground but convince her he wasn't making a huge mistake. And since he wasn't so sure of that himself, it would be no easy feat.

 

 

Kimberly felt as if her heart was being pulled apart as she watched Jason storm off. _Why did this have to happen now?_ she wondered forlornly. _I can't leave Tommy now, not like this, but Zack and Trini need me. What am I going to do?_

More than ever she wished Tommy had not been so grievously injured in the battle against Zedd. She herself was only just beginning to feel recovered from the ordeal, but she knew Tommy's healing would take far longer. If anyone could get through to Jason now, it was Tommy. If only they could have had a few more weeks' peace…

"You know more than you told Jason, don't you, Dulcea?" she asked quietly.

The sorceress actually looked a little rueful. "He would not have listened to what I had to say anyway," she said. "And what else I would have said would only have been guesses."

"I'd like to hear it anyway, if you don't mind."

Dulcea nodded. "Ask yourself: why would Ivan Ooze lay a trap for Jason?"

Kimberly frowned. "You think he already knows about Jason and the Sword?"

"It is the only explanation that makes sense." She was clearly fretting now. "He seems to know a great deal more than I would have thought. For much of his life, Zordon has taken it upon himself to safeguard your kin and your kingdom, and because of that we thought that you were protected from evils like Ivan Ooze. It appears that all this time we have been wrong."

That Zordon had had a purpose for all of his meddling other than trying to convince her to marry Jason had never really occurred to Kimberly. She considered it now, and wondered just how much of the happiness and peace of her childhood she owed to Zordon. She'd always thought of him as a meddling grandfather, but he must have been so much more than that.

And now Zordon was trapped and apparently failing, too. So many of her friends and allies were in danger right now, and she could only do so much to help. It was overwhelming.

She wondered suddenly if this was how Dulcea felt all the time. "What can we do?" she asked, hoping that the sorceress would have some idea.

"We must try to counsel Jason. He must not act rashly in this pivotal moment," Dulcea said, but that was not what Kimberly had wanted to hear. She had wanted Dulcea to say that there was something they could do to save Zack and Trini, but her friends seemed to be the least of Dulcea's worries. It seemed somehow unfair that Dulcea should worry more about some evil sorcerer than about her friends.

"His only hope of defeating Ooze and rescuing your friends is the Sword of Power. It may be the only weapon that can actually harm a sorcerer as powerful as Ivan Ooze," Dulcea concluded.

When she put it like that… "I'll see what I can do to convince him," Kimberly promised. She could already imagine how Jason would react to that, at least if his behavior earlier had been any indication. But the best way to handle Jason's anger, in her experience, was to direct it to some less harmful purpose. Otherwise he would just brood and rage all day and generally make a nuisance of himself until he got over whatever had upset him. She didn't think he would get over this. Not with Trini and Zack on the line. But for their sakes, she knew she had to try and convince him.

"I'll see what I can do," she murmured thoughtfully, "but you're going to have to tell me more about where to find this Sword." If Jason hadn't taken off already, he was going to need some sort of direction, and he probably wasn't going to want to get it from Dulcea. The Phaedans might have tried to make him their emperor, but Kimberly had a feeling he would still listen to his Queen. If nothing else, he had better listen to his old friend, Kimberly.

"The Sword lies some distance northeast of here, perhaps a day's ride," Dulcea explained. "There was a pitched battle between the forces of Phaedos and Zedd's horde, and that is where the Sword fell when the last Heir was slain. Since there has been no other acknowledged Heir until Jason, it should still be there. It would have been impossible for any human, mortal or immortal, to move it."

"But how can we find it?" she pressed, not wanting to admit that they probably wouldn't be taking Dulcea with them when they went. "Aren't there any landmarks or anything?"

"The battle took place nearly a millennium ago. Much may have changed since then. I could tell you what the landscape looked like then, but I do not know if it would be much help now."

"Tell me," Kimberly urged. "And tell me everything you know about how to find Ivan Ooze, too. I'm going to need every advantage I can get, and… I'm probably not going to be able to talk Jason into consulting you beore we go."

After Dulcea had finished telling what she knew, even going so far as to map the old routes for her on a scrap of paper, Kimberly did not go looking for Jason immediately. Instead, she went back to the room she had lately been sharing with Tommy.

Her husband was still unconscious on the bed where she had left him, but he seemed peaceful now. Katherine had stayed with him, keeping watch as her Queen had commanded. She was sitting on the chair beside the bed, staring down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. But she looked up when Kimberly came in and her eyes were full of curiosity. "What was it?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Something bad," Kimberly said with a sigh. "Something _very_ bad." She hadn't meant to tell Katherine what she had learned, but she felt the strong need to confide in someone. "Jason and Dulcea were attacked by another evil sorcerer," she explained, feeling bone-weary. "Zack and Trini are in danger. And somehow I've got to knock some sense into Jason before he goes and gets himself killed."

Katherine looked aghast.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to spend some time with my husband before I have to go deal with the rest of this mess," Kimberly murmured. Kat nodded her understanding and quickly made herself scarce.

When the door was securely closed behind Kat, Kimberly went and sat on the bed beside Tommy. He did not stir. She had secretly hoped he would wake up, so she could at least tell him what had happened and where she was going now, but he remained soundly asleep.

Looking at him now, her heart really did feel like it was breaking. She had to try and help Jason save their friends… but now it really struck home that if she did that, she might never see Tommy again. Things had been so tense and awkward between them since she found out about him and Kat, and now she regretted that she had let insecurity and jealousy get the better of her. She would have given just about anything for one more night with Tommy, one last time for things to be the way they were before, if this would be the last time she ever saw him.

Almost without thinking about it, she found herself singing softly to him, a slow, sad song that her mother had taught her a lifetime ago when her grandmother died: "_We are leaves meant to fall, there's a meaning to all that fades…_" She was almost startled to hear her own voice as she eased into the song. Singing had once been one of her favorite pastimes, along with tumbling and archery, but she had not sung anything since her parents died. She had almost thought her music was lost for good, buried under the weight of being a Queen, and the demands of her newfound magic.

_Maybe I'll only ever sing for the things I've lost_, she thought sadly as she came to the song's conclusion and bent over to press a kiss to Tommy's forehead.

She stayed with him a while longer, watching him sleep peacefully, but soon she could not deny that the time had come. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I have to go. I love you."

She was surprised to find that the day had slipped away entirely while she said her farewell to Tommy. Feeling like she was groping in the dark, she felt around for Jason's life-force and found it. He was in another wing of the castle, heading toward the stables. As she had suspected, he was going to head out on his own. She just hoped that Dulcea had enough sense not to try to interfere.

It was easy to slip past all the Phaedan nobles and their guards. None of them cared much about the Queen of some tiny faraway kingdom they had never heard of. The only one they cared about was Jason. Wryly, she thought they would care a great deal more about her if they knew she was going to help their newly appointed "emperor" escape from their clutches.

She headed Jason off before he could get to the stables, knowing she would have a hard time catching him if he got on his way without her. She crept up behind him, moving as silently as possible in the dimly lit hallway until she was close enough to have reached out and touched him. "Jason," she called, hoping he would heed her.

He turned with a grimace. "Kim, get out of here."

She shook her head. "I'm not going to let you do this alone."

"Kim, no. You have to stay here. Tommy needs you. The others need you. And everyone back home needs you."

She heard what he didn't say: _nobody needs me, so it's better if I go alone._ It pained her to see her once-proud friend reduced to this.

"Let me put it this way," she said in her most diplomatic tone, having already decided that if they survived this foolishness she and Jason were going to have a long talk. "If you don't let me go with you, I will start screaming. And I won't stop until I've brought the entire castle down on you and you have no hope of pulling this off." He glared at her, but he knew her well enough to know she meant it. "Besides," she went on, "I have something you need: directions to the Sword."

"I wasn't planning to go after the Sword," he pointed out. "Zack and Trini need me. I can't afford to waste time on some stupid myth."

"It's not a myth," she protested. "And you're going to need it if you want to get our friends away from Ivan Ooze, and I can get you to it."

"Then tell me how to get there, Kim," he allowed. "But you can_not_ come with me."

"And I can't let you go alone," she insisted. Unexpected tears welled up in her eyes; she brushed them furiously away. The thought of losing Jason hurt almost as much as losing Tommy or Trini. "Whatever happens next, you're going to need someone to watch your back. And if I could, I'd send Tommy with you, but I can't, so you're stuck with me."

Jason looked hurt when she mentioned Tommy. He clearly did not want to accept this, but she hadn't given him much of a choice. He glared at her for a long moment, tyring to come up with some way to talk her out of this. "Fine," he bit out finally. "Let's go."

It wasn't far from there to the stables, but by the time they got there, Kimberly was beginning to regret not packing any supplies for the journey. She could use her magic to change her dress into more suitable traveling clothes, but she couldn't magic up food or blankets or firewood for the journey. They couldn't afford to waste more time sneaking through the castle to get something out of the kitchens, so they would just have to make do with what Jason had scrounged up and what they could find on the way.

The stables were empty when they entered, at least at first glance. Kimberly's temper flared when a figure stepped out of the shadows toward them – _how dare someone try to stop us! – _but anger quickly turned to bafflement. "Aisha?"

Aisha smiled wryly and handed the pack to Kimberly. "Dulcea warned us what was going on," she said. "I thought you might be needing this." Kimberly thanked her and she turned to Jason. She pressed a small leather pouch into his hand. "And this is for Trini, when you find her. I have a feeling she's going to need it more than I am."

Kimberly realized with a start that the pouch must contain Trini's topaz, and felt her heart lift a little. Jason stared at the pouch for a moment, speechless. Then he tied it to his belt and, to her astonishment, swept Aisha up into a brief but heartfelt hug. "Thank you, Aisha," he murmured.

"You're welcome," she replied, her tone turning stern. "Now you two look out for each other out there. Rocky, Adam, and I, we're going to hold down the fort here and do what we can to keep the Phaedans off your tail, but that doesn't mean you can afford to wait around here doing nothing."

As if on cue, Adam appeared then. He was leading their old pack horses, which had already been readied for a journey. "Rocky's upstairs making a complete ass of himself," he said with an almost-amused smile. "Turns out when he does that, nobody goes looking for us."

"Thanks, Adam," Kimberly said. Seeing no point in waiting any longer, she slipped her pink diamond ring onto her finger and allowed the magic to transform her clothes into her desired form. Instead of her day-dress, she now wore clothes that were sturdy and suitable for travel on horseback, and she carried her bow and quiver.

"Just bring them home," he told her, unfazed by the transformation. "And remember that at the first chance we get, we're going to be coming after you, so leave a trail we can follow."

"We will," she promised. Somehow, that really did reassure her.

A few minutes more and they were on their way. Dulcea met them at the castle gate, though she would only say that she had "subdued" the guards so that they could slip out undetected. And then they were off, riding into the twilit gloom in the direction that Dulcea said they should go. Kimberly only paused to look back once, hoping that Tommy could forgive her for what she was doing.

They rode on through the night, stopping to snatch a few hours' sleep in the early hours before dawn, and then they hurried onward. Kimberly gave up on conversation after a few failed attempts to get Jason to open up. It was no use trying to talk to him. When he wanted to brood in silence, there was very little that could change his mind. On a good day, she might have managed it, but this was not a good day.

Late in the afternoon that day, they found the last of the landmarks that Dulcea had told her about. It was good luck, and it meant that they were on the right track, but Kimberly felt a deep sense of foreboding. It seemed almost too easy… She did not dare to hope that they would simply find the Sword abandoned where its master had died, and yet it seemed that might be the case after all. They rode through relatively level land that was only sparsely forested and which seemed to be completely abandoned. It might almost have been pleasant.

Slowly, the trees thinned out and even the small plants underfoot grew brown and then grey, and then ceased to grow at all. Ahead of them the ground simply fell away, plunging into a deep, smoking crater so wide that the other side was merely a grey smudge against the horizon. Kimberly stared in horror. An unbearable heat rose up from the crater, and amid the shimmering smoke she thought she could glimpse streams of what looked like fire turned liquid. "This is the spot Dulcea marked on the map…" she trailed off, unwilling to voice her true thoughts. _If the Sword of Power was here, it can't be now._

"Wait here," Jason told her, dismounting.

"Oh no, you are not going down there," she retorted. "No way. Do you have a death wish or something?"

"If I don't come back, go back to Tommy and the others," he told her, handing her the reins.

"Jason –"

"Tell them what happened. Work with Dulcea. Find another way to save Trini and Zack," he insisted. Red light flashed as he slipped the ruby ring onto his finger, and he was once again wearing that frightening armor he had worn when he killed Lord Zedd. The last thing she wanted to do was to let him go alone, but he had a good point. If they both died here, there would be no one left to try to rescue their missing friends. And with that in mind, she knew she would wait for him here, at a safe distance, and hope for the best.

But that didn't mean she had to like it.

"Jason." She bit back a dozen infuriated diatribes as he began to search for a way down, and settled for, "Come back."

 

 

Jason descended carefully into the fiery abyss. After a while it began to seem that he had been climbing down into the fiery pit forever. It was almost unbearably hot. Smoke wafted past him and sweat and ash stung his eyes, and occasionally parts of the path would simply crumble away like so much soot. The place was a nightmare. He hoped his instincts were correct, and that he wasn't wasting his time here.

He couldn't explain it to himself, much less Kimberly, but somehow he was sure this was the right place. This was what had become of the Sword's untapped power: it had destroyed the landscape around it. If his guess was right, what could the Sword of Power do in the hands of its true heir?

Enough_,_ he hoped, to save his friends from Ivan Ooze.

At the same time, it made him cautious. He was beginning to realize, as he had not during the journey to Phaedos, that this Sword was one of those powers Dulcea had spoken of. In itself, it was neither good nor evil. It could be used to save the world from people like Zedd and Ivan Ooze, but it could also be used to wreak great evil and destruction. And if this swath of destruction was indeed, as he guessed, an effect of the Sword's unharnessed power, it would be dangerous even to leave it unwielded. _If I die here,_ he wondered, _and leave the Sword unclaimed, will it eventually destroy the world? Or would another Heir spring up somewhere to take up the burden?_

Because although it had at first seemed a blessing to be the Sword's chosen Heir, it now seemed like it must be a burden instead. To be always hunted for that power, to deal always with people trying to sway him to their causes, to be tasked with always controlling such a powerful force… He was no longer sure he wanted the responsibility, but he knew that if he was the only one that _could_ undertake the task then he must be the one to do it.

Down and down he went, and still the bottom of the crater seemed to grow no nearer. It seemed almost as if it must cut all the way to the depths of the underworld. The world had begun to grow dark, but for the glowing of the molten rock, and he knew the sun must be setting. He had to stop several times on the way, trying to catch his breath in the hot, stagnant air.

As he descended further, he passed crevices in the wall where steam came howling out. And, too, he passed shining gemstones, and rills and streamlets where molten rock flowed like water. It was a horrible, oppressive place… and yet the closer he got, the more he could almost feel the Sword's power calling him. There was a sense of urgency and anticipation in his very blood.

Finally he reached the bottom of the crater, after what must have been hours of steadily making his way downward. He glanced up once, wondering how Kimberly was faring, and hoping she would have the good sense not to follow him. He could see no sign of her now that dusk had descended, and that seemed to him to be a good thing. If she wasn't following him, then she was probably safe, at least for now. With that thought in mind, he set about cautiously exploring the crater.

The ground within the crater was generally sloped, but not particularly even. Large boulders and rockfalls were scattered throughout, the ground was laced by thin streams of lava, and the air was thick with smokey steam. If the path down into the crater had seemed inhospitable, this place was downright deadly. One misstep and he would be seriously injured, or worse. He didn't think his magic armor could protect him from melted rock, and he didn't want to find out if his guess was right or wrong.

He made his way carefully onward, heading as steadily as he could toward the center of the crater. It wasn't easy, and he had to circle around and backtrack several times when he found his way suddenly blocked, but gradually he drew closer and closer to his goal. Then as he made his way around a particularly large pile of boulders, all at once he could see it: at the very center of the crater there was an enormous stone outcrop, and protruding from the boulder at the top of the outcrop he could just make out the hilt of a sword. At least, it looked like the hilt of a sword. He took it for a sign and headed straight toward it.

He was almost there when the ground began to shake. The sudden motion threw him to his knees; it was all he could do to avoid landing in a nearby stream of molten rock. On his hands and knees, he waited for the tremors to subside, but the shaking only seemed to grow worse the longer he waited. He glanced around him, searching for the source of the earthquake, but he could see very little through the smoky twilight.

Wind rushed through the crater, blowing the smoke and soot away, as the shaking at last died away. Jason managed to get to his feet and look around, only to see something enormous and glowing red as an ember moving up into the sky. At first he thought it must be a gout of lava, but the way it moved was sinuous, snakelike, not at all like a geyser. Bewildered, he noted four reptilian legs tipped with long claws dangling from the ribbon-like body that somehow flew without wings. It was only when the creature leveled its gigantic head at him and bellowed with rage that he realized he was looking at a dragon.

He considered himself a brave man. Fear struck him now and for a moment he froze in his tracks, but he knew he could not let fear stop him. He was too close now. Dragon or no dragon, he had to try.

He made a break for that central outcropping of rock. The terrain was treacherous in the gloom, slowing him down as the dragon surged overhead. It swooped down out of the sky, like a falcon striking its prey, and it missed him by what felt like mere inches. He had no weapon with which to fend it off, and guessed that a second strike would mean his end.

Finally, he reached the outcrop and scrambled upward. It took him a long time to maneuver into a position where he could make a last, mad dash for the Sword – time during which he knew if the dragon had truly wanted to destroy him, it would have, though that was small comfort. With the dragon looming furiously over him, he darted forward, somehow managed to make the leap onto the boulder, and pull the blade from the stone in which it had been embedded. He had no idea if this was the right sword, but it was _a_ sword, and it would afford him some chance at least should the dragon swoop down upon him again. It came free effortlessly and was perfectly weighted in his hand. Against a human opponent, he had the sudden feeling that he could not lose. But against a dragon…

The dragon gave a rumbling sound that almost sounded like a chuckle, and began to descend.

_So an Heir to the Sword of Power returns at last,_ said a deep, deep voice. Jason startled for a moment before recalling how the dragon Erë had seemed able to speak directly into his head. This dragon must be much the same, at least in that regard, though its elemental powers were clearly aligned with fire, rather than Erë's ice.

"I have," he said, not entirely sure how best to address a dragon. "I am Jason Scott, and this sword is my birthright."

_It will also be your death,_ the dragon rumbled, regarding him with eyes that seemed to burn with anger. _You have no right to come here and claim it, son of cowards and thieves. This land and all within its boundaries belongs to Hrag, Lord of the Flames and the Fiery Deeps._

Jason felt a little foolish for having thought that the Sword could protect him from a dragon's wrath. Now, with the dragon staring down at him and knowing that it could smite him at any moment it chose, sword or no, he felt incredibly small and powerless. Even the schemes of Ivan Ooze seemed inconsequential when faced with this ancient power. Was this how Tommy had felt when he first encountered Erë? Probably not, since Tommy had had Dulcea's help with that, and had known what he was getting into. A dragon had been the last thing Jason was expecting.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. "Hrag," he said, doing his best to pronounce the unfamiliar name correctly. "It's true I came here for the sword. I need its power to put an end to a great evil that threatens my friends, and maybe even the entire world." Hrag seemed to seethe with anger, so he hurriedly went on, "But if the Sword is truly yours and I have no right to it, I would ask only to borrow it. And I would make whatever oath you require that I would return it when the battle is won."

Hrag coiled around him, cutting off any hope of escape. Jason stood firm. "What do you say?" he shouted. "One way or another, I will do what must be done to save my people."

The dragon ceased its slow circling. _And what will _I _gain from this bargain, mortal?_

"Don't you care about anything but yourself?" Jason demanded, half expecting to die in a gout of flame even as he spoke. "The world is in danger. Ivan Ooze is preparing to make a move that will make him unstoppable. He knows where I am and what I am, and if he kills me, no one will be able to stand against him. Without this Sword of Power, there is no hope of defeating him. But with it…"

The dragon snorted, black smoke shooting from its nostrils. _Mortals,_ it rumbled. _So self-serving. And yet, you are correct. I care little for the world, so long as it leaves me to myself and leaves my lands intact. You may find it difficult to sway me, human._

"And what do you think Ivan Ooze is going to do when the Sword of Power is out of the way?" Jason asked. "Do you really think he's going to sit in his castle, content with his power? He's going to start gathering all the power he can get his hands on, and one day –"

The implication – that one day Ivan Ooze would have enough power challenge the great dragons themselves – seemed to make Hrag angry. The ground rumbled dangerously, threatening to throw Jason from his perch on the boulder. Beyond the loop of the dragon's body, he could see geysers of molten rock and steam shooting up into the air.

_Enough_, Hrag said at last. _You will not leave here with what is mine, mortal._

"Then I'll die trying."

The dragon's head tilted slightly to one side, as if in curiosity. _And what,_ he asked, _is worth such a risk? It seems to me that you do not undertake this risk for the sake of "the world."_

"My friends are in danger," he admitted, feeling it best not to lie. And if he were completely honest with himself, Trini and Zack were the reason he was here. The rest of the world could rot for all he cared right now. But luckily, saving his friends would likely save the world as well.

_Mere humans? The risk does not seem worth the reward._

"They aren't just humans," Jason snapped, furious that the dragon could care so little for mortal lives. "Zack is my best friend, my brother in everything but blood. And Trini… I love her. And now they're in trouble, and…" He almost couldn't admit it. "And I'm the one that put them there." He paused, struggling inside himself. "I have to set this right."

_There is fire in you,_ the dragon observed, _fire and fury. A potent combination. _The dragon moved sinuously over, lowering its head to look at him with one enormous eye. _And there are other powers within you, too… mortal magics, and perhaps a bit of something else. You are destined for great things._

The sudden change in the dragon's stance took him aback. He felt as if he were flailing about in darkness with no idea where he was or what was happening.

_I agreed to bide here for a time, until the next Heir came forward,_ Hrag explained, _and to test that Heir to ensure that he was worthy of wielding such a blade._ Jason could hardly breathe as he listened to the dragon's speech. _You have passed the test, Jason Scott. The Sword of Power is yours. And if the threat of Ivan Ooze is as great as you say, then you may have my help as well._

It seemed to Jason that the heat must surely be making him delirious. Had the dragon really just bequeathed him the Sword of Power and offered its help in his quest? If so, he might actually have a prayer of succeeding. "Do you know where to find Ivan Ooze?" he asked.

_I do._ The dragon's voice rattled him to the core, but its words gave him hope.

"Can you help me get there?"

The dragon flowed through the air, coiling nearer and nearer to the outcrop where Jason was standing. _I can,_ it said. A section of its body, just behind the great forelegs, ceased its undulating motion. _Come. I will take you to Ivan Ooze, but first there is one last trial you must undergo._

Jason did not like the sound of that, but realized he had little say in the matter now. At least, not if he wanted Hrag to cooperate. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, unwilling to accept Hrag's offer without knowing what he was agreeing to.

_Before you can deal with the problems of the present, you must understand your past_, Hrag said, _else I cannot bequeath the Sword to you. My power will unveil the past, so that you may fully understand what is at stake in the coming battle._

"Is this some part of your test? I thought you said the Sword was mine." Jason took a deep breath, oppressively hot air stinging his lungs, and fought the urge to cough. And then he steeled himself and climbed onto the dragon's back. They began to float slowly out of the crater, moving more or less straight up, like a cinder caught in an updraft above a campfire.

_No. It is part of my agreement with your ancestors: you must not go into this battle blinded by delusions._

Jason struggled to make sense of all of this. In the distant past, his ancestors must have had some sort of power over this dragon, the way Tommy's dagger had power over Erë… And he had never had the slightest idea. It was only just now occurring to him how much he did not know about where he came from. Maybe, he thought, it wasn't such a bad idea to learn about his past. He only wished he could save Zack and Trini first, and _then_ take the time to learn.

_You have the sword,_ Hrag said suddenly, startling him out of his thoughts. _Where is your shield?_

"My shield?" Jason asked, not understanding. No one, not even Dulcea, had ever said anything about a shield to go with the sword.

The dragon did not respond for a moment, then shot upward and banked suddenly, heading toward the southwest. _Ah, I have found her_, he announced. They careened wildly toward the edge of the crater, moving so quickly that Jason wasn't sure what had happened until they had swooped back up into the air and Kimberly was screaming at him. She was pinned in the dragon's claws, her eyes shining with terror – and fury.

"What in the world do you think you're doing, Jason?" she demanded, shrieking loudly enough that he could hear her.

"I'm not entirely sure," he shouted back. Hrag was racing over the countryside, and had given no indication whatsoever where he was taking them. Not that Kimberly would have believed him if he told her that.

"If this thing drops me," she threatened, "so help me I will haunt you for the rest of your life!"

_I am no _thing, Hrag said, sounding almost indignant. _I am Hrag, Lord of the Flames and the Fiery Deeps, and I will not drop you._

"I think we need you for some kind of magic spell," Jason shouted apologetically.

_Yes,_ Hrag rumbled. _You, too, will benefit from this history lesson, descendant of Bryndis Hart. But I warn you: the spell is dangerous. You will relive the actions of your ancestors. You will see their actions, you will understand their thoughts and motivations. But to do this, your spirits must be split from your bodies, and they will require a guide to find their way back. You must choose another human that you both can trust to be your guide, for your spirits will be linked with theirs until the spell is done. It is their power that will untangle the threads of past and present to bring you back to yourselves, and if they fail you will be lost._

Jason locked eyes with Kimberly. "Tommy," they said together.

"But first," Kimberly said, the very picture of Queenly outrage. "We are going to stop somewhere, because I am not going all the way back to Phaedos like this!"

 

 

Tommy awoke in the dark and found himself alone. For some reason, he'd been sure Kimberly was with him; he thought he'd heard her singing. But his room was empty and no one had bothered to light so much as a single candle.

He felt unreasonably weak. It was an enormous effort just to get out of bed on his own, but his wife's absence told him something was up. She had always been there before in the brief moments when he woke. If she wasn't there now, it meant something important must have happened.

With a great deal of effort, he got dressed and, propelled by some instinct, donned his armor, though the lightweight dragon-forged steel seemed impossibly heavy and awkward now. He could hardly bear to look at it, with the shining white marred front and back by large black splotches where the blade had pierced through him. That accomplished, he hobbled to the door. He felt about a thousand years old. _What the hell happened to me?_ he wondered. But there was no one there to answer his question.

There was no one outside in the hall. The layout of the castle was vaguely familiar, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly why, so he didn't get lost as he made his way slowly down the hall and up and out to the battlements. If Kimberly wasn't with him, this was the place she was most likely hiding.

Except for a few unobtrusive (and unhelpful) guards, the battlements were devoid of life. High above in the lightening sky, a few stars still shone brilliant and white. He had to look away.

_Kimberly, _he wondered, _what have you done? Where have you gone?_

Because although he remembered her being beside him during his recovery, he really couldn't be sure that he hadn't just been dreaming. He remembered being stabbed… He remembered dying with his own sword through his heart, knowing that Lord Zedd was going to gain control over Kimberly forever. What he did not remember was what had happened after that, what had become of Kimberly and Jason and all the others. And he definitely didn't remember how he had survived what should have been a mortal injury.

He had a feeling Kimberly had something to do with that. Frustrated by her absence as much as by his absurd certainty that she was not within the castle, he looked back to the sky.

He had been waiting for perhaps half an hour when he caught sight of something strange in the sky, like a ribbon of fire off to the northeast. At first he thought he must have been seeing things, because surely such a thing was impossible, but the fire remained. In fact, as he watched it seemed to grow closer and closer. It was several minutes before he realized he was looking at a dragon: as large and powerful as Erë, but red-gold and shining like a flame.

Common wisdom back home held that all the world's great dragons were dead and gone, or else the invention of fireside tales…

Obviously the common wisdom was wrong. First Erë, now this dragon. Tommy wondered if these two were the last, or if for some reason the great ones were now awakening from their long slumber.

He expected the dragon to turn aside, to head off for some other location, but instead it made its way straight for the castle Phaedos. As it drew closer, even the guards began to exclaim and point toward the sky; groups of nobles and servants began to gather on the battlements, though they gave Tommy a wide berth. There was quite a crowd gathered atop the castle by the time the dragon was close enough to make out any details. Not entirely to Tommy's surprise, the dragon bore two people on its back. Even from a distance he would have been willing to guess who those two people were.

The dragon stopped just at the castle wall, regarding the gathered humans with large black eyes, its sinuous red body undulating on some current of air or magic. The dragon's eye seemed to pierce through him where he stood alone at the center of the group.

Away behind him, Tommy was vaguely aware of Dulcea and the rest of his friends emerging onto the battlement. Then one of the figures on the dragon's back removed her helmet and shouted, "Tommy!"

He felt a surge of relief to see that it was Kimberly. His guess had been correct, then, and the other figure could be none other than Jason.

The dragon moved, twisting so that its back was leveled alongside the battlements. Tommy approached cautiously. His experience with Erë had taught him that dragons could be unpredictable, and that their intentions were more difficult to guess than those of humans.

Kimberly leaned toward him and stretched out a hand to him. He had to climb onto the very parapet to reach her. The dragon's body gave off an impressive amount of heat. Up close he could see that while its scales were flame-red closer to its body, toward their edges they were grey and brittle as cinders. The dragon was terrifying, with its long, snakelike body and enormous teeth and claws, but Tommy trusted no one more implicitly than Kimberly and Jason.

He took her hand and climbed onto the dragon's back behind her, and together they flew off into the night.


	41. The Origin

The world began in darkness, and it would end in darkness. Hrag took the time to explain this fundamental truth as he carried the three humans to whatever destination he had in mind. But what happened in between those periods of darkness, he told them, would be the interesting thing.

For what seemed like hours they glided through the night sky, their path illuminated only by the stars above and the soft glow of the dragon that carried them. Jason seemed captivated by the sword he carried; Kimberly had gathered that it was the Sword of Power, after all, but she hadn't had the time to ask him about where he'd found it or how he'd come to have it. She was afraid to ask what he thought it meant for the future. For now she was content to relax against Tommy and be thankful that her husband was well enough to be on this journey with her, and hopefully well enough to play the role the dragon had in mind for him.

She wasn't entirely sure that she trusted Hrag, but she was aware that she had no choice. She might stand up to a sorcerer like Zordon or Dulcea – or Rita or Zedd – but against a dragon's power she had no hope of resistance. She could only do as she was asked and hope for the best. But with Tommy beside her, she had a little more hope that everything would end well.

At last, Hrag arrived at his destination and began to drift closer to the ground. It was so subtle that Kimberly hardly noticed the descent until they were floating amid tall trees. The trees loomed dark and frightening in the night, but the dragon was undeterred. Finally he leveled off to circle around the ruins of an ancient building that must have been quite modest even in its prime. Now it was a jumbled ruin, only half standing.

_Here_, the dragon rumbled. _This is the place where I shall work the magic._

"Here?" Kimberly echoed unenthusiastically. She would not have wanted to stick around this place even in the light of day, much less the middle of the night.

_Here_, Hrag affirmed.

Kimberly sighed and looked reluctantly at the ground. Hrag was not as large as Erë had been, though his snakelike body was longer, but it still seemed a long way down. And the floating and undulating were really not helping.

Jason swung his leg over the dragon's back and hopped down. Kimberly winced slightly when he hit the ground, knees bending deeply as he landed. Knowing that she would only be delaying the inevitable by protesting, she took a deep breath and followed suit. Tommy was right behind her.

"All right, Hrag," Jason said, turning to look up at the dragon, "What do you want us to do?"

He seemed entirely too willing to go along with what the dragon wanted for Kimberly's taste. He could at least ask some more questions than that! "And why?" she piped up.

"I wouldn't mind a little explanation," Tommy added. She realized then that they hadn't told him anything about what was going on after they picked him up from the castle. She hadn't even told him anything that had happened while he was recovering from his injuries. They were lucky he trusted them enough to just go along with what they needed him to do. She hoped she would have time later to tell him what she knew about the sword and the dragon... and whatever they were about to do.

_Before you can face the trials of your present, you must understand your past,_ Hrag said. _Kimberly and Jason, you are the descendants of two of the great human families. As such, you bear the weight of great destinies bestowed by their forebears. The pieces of this game have been in play for a thousand years and more, and now at last the final play begins._

That did not sound reassuring to Kimberly. "I decide my fate," she said stubbornly, thinking of all the times she had defied the fate her friends and courtiers had set for her. "Nobody tells me what to do."

_You may think that you possess free will,_ the dragon allowed, _but your actions were decided long before you were born. You will fulfill your destiny: both of you._

Kimberly suddenly became aware that she was gripping Tommy's hand. Hard. She hated that he was wearing his dragon-forged armor, marred as it still was by Zedd's evil magic, and longed for the feeling of his hand's reassuring warmth against her own. She was about to say something particularly biting to let the dragon know exactly what she thought about his ideas, but Tommy squeezed her hand tightly and the obvious signal made her pause.

"Now hang on," Tommy said. "Just who decided all of this?"

_You might call them gods,_ Hrag told him. _They are the manifestations of the great forces in opposition in the world. Light and dark, good and evil, chaos and order, and many, many others, all locked in eternal struggle. All mortal creatures are a part of their game as each side seeks to gain control over its opposite. Your every action tips the balance one way or the other._

"That isn't fair," Kimberly blurted out, noting Jason's ominous silence for the first time since Hrag began his explanation. "Why should some weird force get to decide how we live our lives? Don't we get any say?"

Hrag seemed confused by her outrage, but not overly concerned with actually answering her questions. _This is the way the world has always been. This is the way the world shall always be._

"The world we know was created out of this conflict, wasn't it?" Jason asked.

_Yes_, Hrag rumbled.

Petulantly, Kimberly wondered how he could be so sure of that. Maybe he was so old he'd been around to see the world's creation. She wanted nothing more than to find a way to prove his words were false, but they had a strange finality to them, as if they brooked no argument whatsoever. She might only be a mortal woman, but she hated the idea that all of her actions had been decided for her by some mystical "force" that wasn't even human.

Tommy squeezed her hand again. She looked at him and wondered if she had been fated to fall in love with him the way she had. Maybe he had been fated to betray her trust and create the rift between them that had only so recently begun to heal. Maybe there had been nothing he could have done to stop it. Maybe there had been nothing he could do to stop himself from falling victim to Zedd's trap and nearly dying. Maybe nothing they did truly mattered… but she couldn't quite bring herself to believe that.

Whatever the dragon might say, she wanted to believe that there was meaning in what she and her friends and her husband were doing.

_Come_, Hrag said. _Time runs short._

"What do you want us to do?" Jason asked.

The dragon's instructions were strange, and peppered with terms that Kimberly did not understand, but simple. It was hard to see amid the ruins of the building. Even the stars didn't help much, because by some miracle a good portion of the roof was still standing. Great wooden doors still guarded the entrance. Kimberly wondered if it might not be some sort of ancient temple, abandoned long ago.

By feel, she managed to find a halfway safe alcove. It was long enough for her to stretch out full length inside of it, which she did. She pressed her hands over her heart, as instructed, and felt for her magic. It pulsed within her, warm and safe and not at all as unsure as she felt.

Kimberly closed her eyes and let the dragon's magic take her.

 

 

_The Last Heir_

Aiden Drake barely heard the messenger's words as he told the grisly tale. He was too busy staring at his father to care about anything else. His father, who had always seemed so lively and strong, almost unstoppable, but who now just barely clung to life. His body was marred by horrifying injuries in spite of the magically charged armor he'd worn into the battle. To judge by those injuries, it was a miracle that he had made it this far.

Around him, men murmured of betrayal, of being abandoned by the immortal sorcerers who had aided them in their fight thus far. Where was Dulcea, they asked, when this was happening? Where was Zordon, gone these long years?

All Aiden could think was, _it wasn't supposed to end like this._

He knew the plan. His grandfather had fallen a fortnight ago, and so his father had taken up the Sword and gone to battle. He'd meant to put an end to their enemies once and for all. If anyone could have done it, it was him. That he had come back on the very brink of death meant that now Aiden would have to be the one to bear the Sword, for no man outside their bloodline could touch the thing, much less hope to wield it in battle.

Aiden, his father's only son. Aiden, who had no sons of his own. Aiden, who had been a mere child when the Sword was first forged and imbued with its powerful magic, but who had nonetheless grown to manhood knowing all about its power and its limitations. His destiny, others had called it.

He didn't see it that way.

_If I die,_ he thought, ignoring the frantic clamoring of his father's men all around him, _then all hope is lost, not just now, but forever._ It should never have come to this, but thinking so would not make it so. And it certainly would not restore his father to health or life. He did not doubt that even Dulcea's famed healing magics would be of no avail now. Not that his father's men, already claiming that Dulcea had forsaken them, would have been willing to ask her for help in the first place.

The Sword was still gripped in his father's hands. Aiden touched its hilt idly, aware of how the men looked at him for it; he had always been able to touch it without being burned, though no other could. The magic was in his blood, as it had been in his father's blood before him. And his grandfather's before that. The other men, assembled from the many clans but not related by blood, looked at him with jealousy in their eyes, that he should have such power and they should not. To them, it seemed that he ought to feel honored to be so chosen. But it seemed to him that if it were not for such power, his grandfather and his father would still be alive, as they both had been mere weeks ago, when they chose at long last, to their folly, to raise up the Sword against the usurpers.

No, rather than feeling honored by the power bestowed upon him by his father's death, Aiden resented it. He resented its existence just as much as he resented its necessity. And yet he had no choice but to take the Sword, because it had come to that. Like his father, he could see no other way to save his people from annihilation but to stand and fight.

"No," his father wheezed, his last conscious words. Aiden pried the Sword out of his hands anyway. He knew, though the other men did not, what his father had been trying to tell him:_ find another way._ But he was no brilliant tactician, as his grandfather had been. He was no cunning warrior, as his father had been. He was simply Aiden, last of the Drake clan. He would fight because he had no choice, but what he truly longed for was peace.

Mere seconds after he had claimed the Sword, his father breathed his last. Aiden wished for the luxury of mourning, but he knew that he would be expected to shunt the feelings of pain and loss aside, and to act immediately on behalf of his people. Not just his clan, but all of the clans, great and small, and all of the people that did not belong to the clans. And the great clans would want vengeance. They would want him to fight, to strike a decisive blow against the forces that were pushing them out of their homeland. And though his father's – now his – men were already urging him to action, Aiden heard not a word of it.

Unaccustomed to authority, he ordered them all to shut up and was astonished when they obeyed. All of them were at least twice his twenty years of age, all of them grizzled, experienced warriors. And all of them wanted blood to avenge their fallen friend and leader.

They waited in silence for Aiden to say something. They wanted him to take command, but he did not know how to lead. Worse, in their eyes: he did not _want_ to lead them.

If he thought there was a chance that he could stop all of this through diplomacy, he would have chosen that path rather than violence in a heartbeat. But he knew better. It was too late for that now. Now the only path he could see was death.

"We will convene again at sundown," he told the assembled men. Miraculously, though they grumbled at the delay, they obeyed.

"As you command," several of them murmured, some more earnest in their obedience than others. Some of them had loved Aiden's father just as much as he had. He tried to take note of who was less sincere, but his head was spinning. It was too much to think about just yet. And in a day or two, what would it matter anyway?

When the men had gone, Aiden knelt beside his father's lifeless body. It lay still on the cot where the messengers had placed it, when his father yet lived. He had thought, childishly, that if this moment ever came, he would experience some flash of insight that would give him all of the answers he so desperately needed. But when he whispered, "Father, what should I do?" there was no answer. There would never be an answer. His father was gone.

He lingered there for the better part of an hour, hoping something would come to him. In the end, he gave up in disgust at his own foolishness.

He grabbed a cloak one of the messengers had left behind, stained and torn, but unrecognizable as his, and slipped out into the camp. By now he knew the other clans would be meeting, discussing their own options now that the Sword's bearer was dead. He knew that the clanleaders had little faith in him, and that he ought to try to keep the alliance together and keep the Phaedans from splintering apart.

But his feet took him instead to a different part of the sprawling camp. This place was smaller, dirtier, poorer. It was where the ordinary people dwelled, those people not supported by the name and power of one of the great clans. And it was where he knew he would find Simone.

She was not born of one of the great clans, and thus many considered her to be beneath him, but he had known her almost from birth. They had been nearly inseparable as children, and when they grew up that attachment had only deepened. He had always meant to marry her one day, but there had not been time since the Encroachment began. And now it seemed that there would never be time.

He hesitated outside that familiar tent, the one he had given her so that she might have a space all her own. Other refugees made their way past him, not recognizing him or else ignoring him. Finally, he went forward and slipped inside.

Simone was there, alone, and only slightly startled to see him. "Aiden!" She stopped short at the sight of the bare sword in his hand. He hadn't realized that he had brought it with him, but she knew what it was and knew instantly what it meant. "Gods, no," she murmured. "Your father?"

He nodded.

He had thought he was numb inside, that he could push the grief away and simply do what must be done, but he was wrong. In the privacy of Simone's ramshackle little tent, he let his grief go. She held him against her and whispered soothing words that he never heard until his grief was spent and fear began to take its place.

"What am I going to do?" he asked at last.

Simone leveled very blue eyes at him and said, "What you must."

He was afraid, but she knew that. She knew him better than anyone. And, like him, she knew the Sword's history.

It was supposed to be privileged knowledge, known only to the great clans, but he'd shared it with her long ago and it had been their secret ever since. Their first secret, but not their last.

"Simone," he began, resigning himself poorly to his fate. "I want you to leave this place. Tonight. Before the fighting starts."

She looked surprised. And then determination set in. "No."

"I want you to go. I have to know that you're safe," he told her slowly, hoping to impress upon her just how important this was to him.

She frowned. "Aiden, I won't abandon you. Not now. Not after everything…"

"I'm not going to survive this battle," he said, brutally honest. "If my grandfather and my father failed, what hope can I possibly have?" He looked at her beautiful face, wanted to drown in her deep blue eyes, and wished for the thousandth time that they could have been born in a time without this strife. "So I need to know that you are safe. It's the only way I can do what I have to."

She shook her head, unwilling to acknowledge the bitter truth.

"I won't believe that you'll fail," she insisted. "I have faith in you."

At least one person did, he supposed. But of course it would be the one person he did not want to believe in him. "Simone, don't make me order you to go."

It was easy to forget how stubborn she was, until she reminded him. "You can try."

Horrified, he wondered if she would go so far as to disguise herself and try to go to battle with him. There were stories of women who had done such things in the past. "I'll beg if I have to," he said quietly, and did not add that he would order his father's men to tie her up and make sure she didn't do anything rash if he had to. They wouldn't listen, of course, not for a woman who at least was no mere camp follower but still was not of the great clans, but he would order them anyway.

But in the end, to his astonishment, she capitulated. "I will not run, Aiden Drake," she said, as full of stubborn pride as he had ever seen her, "but I will not stand here and die, either. I am no shieldmaiden or swordswoman to stand beside you and fight. If it comes to that, I will go. I only pray that it will not come to that."

It was getting toward dusk when Aiden finally left Simone and returned to face the men that were still loyal to his sadly diminished clan. _His_ men, though he still thought of them as serving his father. He had reached a decision about what must be done and, more importantly, how it must be done. All that remained now was to share the plan with his men, and to follow through.

Word would come back to the camp in the following days and weeks, word of the great battle fought and lost, and of Aiden's fall. Of the sacrifice of Aiden and his best warriors, buying time for the great clans and the innocent citizens of Phaedos to flee into the west. They would lose their homeland forever when they lost Aiden and the Sword of Power… but they – and his beloved Simone – would live.

It was the closest thing to victory that Aiden could have hoped for.

 

 

_The First Queen_

She awoke suddenly, startlingly, not entirely sure where she was. Seeing that it was light outside, just past dawn, Bryndis Hart threw off the threadbare blanket that covered her and exited the tent, noting absently that her husband had disappeared in the night. She wasn't worried. He would find his way back eventually.

Meanwhile the camp around her was a mass of chaos, even this early in the morning. People milled about everywhere, mostly women and children, all of them dirty and hungry. They were all that remained of her once proud people.

Soon even these would be dead, slain by the hand of one of her mortal enemies. Strangely, it took her a moment or two to recall just _who_ those hated enemies were, but when she did remember, the names struck her like a bolt of lightning. _Lord Zedd... and __Ivan Ooze!_

She stalked her way through the camp with no destination in mind. Hatred flowed through her veins along with a fierce desire for vengeance. Ivan might have used his magic to slay her people and force the survivors from their homes in a bid for power that her fellows were obnoxiously calling the Encroachment, but she was confident: he would not win this war. Ooze's quarrel was not truly with Bryndis or her fellow Phaedans, but with another immortal sorcerer who had emerged and tried to stake a claim to Phaedos.

Bryndis was reluctant to strike an alliance with the newcomer, a strange and prideful man who called himself Lord Zedd though he was lord of nothing at all. Not yet, anyway. The High Council of Phaedos, consisting of representatives from all of the clans, had recommended siding with Zedd years ago. The members of the High Council had considered him the least evil option, but several of the great clan families had refused, recognizing Zedd for what he was: a tyrant in search of subjects to control. The Harts were one of those families, and the foremost among them, though the idea of flight had not been theirs.

That decision had, however, brought them to this impasse. The rebellious clans had decided together to leave Phaedos rather than submit to the inevitable domination of Ooze or Zedd, but now they were little more than refugees. Pursued on both sides by the forces of their enemies, most of their warriors were now dead, and their supplies were dwindling dangerously. But her people were resilient, and their enemies had forgotten that they also had magic on their side. Alone, none of their remaining heroes could hope to win this war. But together, they might have some hope of survival.

And that was the purpose of today's meeting of the Hart High Council.

It did not matter which way she wandered through the family encampment; all paths led inevitably to the council circle. The sun had barely peeked over the horizon by the time she arrived, and she was the last to arrive. The Council was made up of familiar faces: the Hart clan's matriarch headed the Council, and its members were by and large her children and their children, and her siblings' children – all the surviving elders of the family, plus any outsiders deemed worthy. In all, there were representatives for some dozen families of note. Bryndis herself was the council's most junior member, at only twenty years of age, and had only been allowed to attend for the past two years.

She was allowed to attend, to observe, but not to act. She was, after all, the youngest of their number, untested and untried.

So she took her place at the back of the clustered Councilors and listened as her grandmother convened the meeting. She realized almost immediately that something unusual was going to occur at today's meeting. Usually the Councilors were gloomy and quiet, but today the air was abuzz with rumors. Bryndis frowned a little listening to the murmuring, and felt a bit cross at being left out. She hadn't the slightest idea what might be about to happen, and she didn't like it one bit.

As she concluded the convocation, Bryna Hart cast a steely glance over the assembled Councilors. They lapsed into silence under her withering gaze.

"Today," she began, "we must act. If we do not, then our people will be destroyed." Bryndis wondered what the old woman meant by this, but she did not have to wait long for her answer. "The Sword of Power is lost. The people of Phaedos no longer have a means of striking a blow against the forces that would push us from our ancestral lands."

Bryndis felt momentary sympathy for Aiden Drake. She had not known him very well, since they were from different clans, but they had been of an age and it seemed he had been too young to die. She was more familiar with his paramour, the outspoken, clanless Simone, than she was with Aiden himself. And yet… if things had fallen out differently, it might have been Bryndis making the sacrifice instead of Aiden. Lucky for her, she supposed, that the Harts preferred to defend rather than attack.

And though Bryndis thought that she knew what her grandmother's plan was, she was wrong. The murmur that had arisen from the news of Aiden's death had barely begun to die down when Dulcea entered the council circle. The sorceress was silent as the murmuring began anew. Even Bryndis was shocked by her arrival; everyone knew Dulcea had turned tail and fled for reasons of her own, abandoning her human allies to the vagaries of Lord Zedd and Ivan Ooze when they needed her most. But if she really hadn't abandoned them… then what had she been doing these past months? Bryndis's mind raced.

"What is _she_ doing here?" Bryndis's great-aunt Mina demanded. It was immediately obvious that most of the Councilors present shared the sentiment. Bryndis did not. She was more confused than anything else.

"I bring the means for your salvation," Dulcea said quietly. Despite her quiet tone, everyone heard her loud and clear.

Many of the Councilors protested this simple statement, but Bryna Hart was clearly content to let Dulcea have the floor. When they realized that their protests were getting them nowhere, the Councilors gave up and listened. By that time, Bryndis was more than impressed. She would not have had such patience.

"Dire times such as these call for desperate actions," Dulcea went on at last. "Until now, I considered this option unthinkable. But now, rather than allow you to simply be destroyed, I bring you a choice." She paused, letting her words sink in. "There is an ancient spell of great protective power," she explained.

"But what's the cost?" Bryndis found herself asking. She was not the only Councilor wondering; individually, their power was as nothing compared to Dulcea's, but the Harts were not lacking in magics.

"The cost is abhorrent," Dulcea admitted. "In order to enact the spell to its fullest power, the few must sacrifice their lives for the many."

Bryndis thought she understood, now, why Dulcea had departed so suddenly and for so long. She had been seeking the specifics of this spell, knowing that it might soon be their only option. What others had seen as a betrayal had really been a last attempt at saving their lives. Most of the Councilors had not yet realized this, and were glaring hostilely at Dulcea.

"Think," Bryna Hart demanded, "before you dismiss this choice." She looked slowly out from one end of the circle to the other. "We may choose yet to run unprotected, to fly in the face of Lord Zedd's wroth, to hope that Ivan Ooze does not find us, and we may survive through some stroke of blind luck. Or we may choose this course, the course that lays a protective shield over our people for generations to come. What are a few lives given now, if the alternative is death for all?"

Again, Bryndis was the one to raise her voice in question. "And how do you decide who dies and who lives?" she asked.

"Those with magic must give up their lives so that those without may be safe," Dulcea murmured. "But I would not ask that any give their lives against their will."

The Councilors, each chosen as much for the spark of magic in her heart as for the wisdom in her mind, began to realize the full implications of the choice Dulcea offered. Not just anyone would be asked to die for this spell. _They_ were being asked to give up their lives to create a magical shield that would, in theory, hide and protect their people.

It took hours to reach a consensus. Some of the Councilors sensed right away that they had no other recourse, and so they agreed quickly. Others were less willing to sacrifice themselves for a spell that might not achieve its intended purpose. But eventually, even the reluctant ones were won over. And when that time arrived, Bryndis was horrified into speechlessness. All she could do was watch as her fellow Councilors voiced their opinions one by one, until Dulcea stood before her and asked, "Are you sure you wish to do this?"

Bryndis glanced to the other women gathered in the circle, the other women of her clan. Each of their faces showed the same grim resolve that she felt deep in her heart. She looked back to the sorceress, and echoed the answer that each of her kinswomen had given. "Yes. Show us how."

The work was exhausting, and horrifying. To create the shielding spell, a great amount of power was necessary, more than was possessed by any one of them individually. Bryndis knew something of magic, having been born and raised to it, but she knew nothing compared to the sorceress Dulcea. She knew that magical acts had consequences... but she had never imagined that the use of magic could truly cost a human life.

She learned her lesson well that day. There was little enough for her to do but to watch and learn as her kinswomen gave up their lives to forge the crown that would be the symbol of the protective magic that would guard their people forevermore. A crown, cast in gold and set all about with multi-colored gems that were no mere minerals. The gems looked like rubies and emeralds and sapphires, but each was created with the power of one living woman.

For each gem that was imbued with the power to protect their people, one woman of the Hart clan sacrificed her life. Together, mounted in the magic-infused gold of the crown, the gems could keep their people safe even from the likes of Lord Zedd or Ivan Ooze. The price for such power was terrible, but they had no other choice. And so the few had ultimately chosen to give up their lives for the many. And this they did, one by one, all through the long afternoon.

It fell to Bryndis, the youngest of them all, to be the survivor. She would be the shield to protect her people, body and soul. Although she had expected the process to be as painful and horrifying as the transformation of her fellows into gemstones, in the end she felt very little. She might not even have realized that the deed was done, had Dulcea not informed her. Dully, she knew that from now on she would wield the magic power that would protect her people, and her daughter after her, and her daughter after her, and on and on. To ensure its continuance, the key to the magic would be bound not just into the metal and jewels of the crown, but into her very blood, and the blood of all her offspring. This was no spell to be cast and set in stone forever, it was a living, breathing thing.

All of her offspring, Bryndis mused, which thanks to the spell's power would be limited to only a single daughter. A daughter who would have to marry, not for love, but in order to secure the most wise and responsible king for her kingdom, before she could access the power that Bryndis would one day bestow upon her.

Bryndis steeled herself against a powerful sense of regret. She knew she did not have the luxury of regretting what could never be – the children that would never be born, the happiness her single allotted daughter might now never find. If she and her kinswomen did not have the courage to take this drastic action, their entire nation would soon be destroyed forever. At least this way, some of them would survive.

Her sacrifice would be a small one compared to theirs.

By the time the sun set, Bryndis met the sorceress's gaze with weary eyes. She was now the last of her line, the direct lineage of the Hart matriarchs. Her hands gripped a jeweled crown that fairly buzzed with magical power. Before midnight, she and stood before the High Council and was crowned Queen of all the free people of Phaedos. No Emperor would reign over these Phaedans ever again. From this day forward they would be governed by their Queen and protected by her magic. There was no going back. The rest of Phaedos might be doomed, but now Bryndis could only look forward.

 

 

Some days later, and miles and miles away from the camp where the fateful spell had been cast, the harried Queen had just dismissed her advisers for the day. Now that she was declared Queen over all the Phaedans, those advisers included not just members of her own clan, but all of the major clans and many of the small ones besides. Dealing with them and all of their squabbles and problems was incredibly taxing, and though she told herself over and over that this was necessary to ensure their survival, it didn't help much.

Her husband Martin helped where he could, of course, but he was only a lesser son of the Scott clan. And he had not been crowned King; _she_ was the one who had been crowned. The other clans had grumbled about that, but the Harts had been matrilineal and matriarchal since time immemorial and they were not about to change their ways now. The Phaedans would accept a Queen or they would be left behind.

When the tent-flap rustled open and someone stepped into the tent, Bryndis did not even look over. She merely assumed it was her husband returning for a few moments together before the next minor catastrophe must be dealt with.

"What is it?" Bryndis asked. She half-turned, surprised to see that it was not him at all, but a woman. Feeling even more shocked, Bryndis recognized her as Simone, former lover of Aiden Drake.

The other woman glanced furtively about, as if she were afraid of being overheard. "Before I can say anything, you must promise to protect me."

More curious than irritated by the demand, Bryndis nodded. She cast a spell of silence over her tent, so that no one outside of it could hear what was spoken within. "Tell me."

"I am with child," the other woman said simply.

Bryndis tried not to let her shock show, but the news was astonishing. Still, she knew she could not merely jump to conclusions. She had to ask. "Is it…"

"Aiden's?" Simone glowered. "I have been with no other man."

"Well, you're going to have to be," Bryndis retorted, already tired of this. Bad enough to think the Sword of Power lost forever with Aiden's death, to lose all of her kinswomen in one fell swoop to protect everyone else… now Simone was coming forward, claiming to carry Aiden's child, a child that might be able to wield the Sword? If she spoke truly and that child turned out to be a son… not only would he eventually be the only hope for defeating the enemies that had chased them from their homeland, he would need to be carefully guarded. His true identity could not be known, at least not now.

"I will not!" Simone protested.

"Yes," Bryndis said, with all the Queenly fury she could muster. "You will, because your child's life depends on it."

Simone grew silent.

Bryndis went on, "Do you really think Zedd and Ooze had no idea you were Aiden's lover all this time? If you are lucky, they did not. But no one must know that this child is Aiden's, not until the time is right." And now she did feel a pang of sympathy for Simone, if she stopped to think about it. She was still grieving for her lost lover, and now she must marry another man as soon as possible, in order to claim false parentage for her child.

But there was nothing to be done for it, and Queen Bryndis had no time for sympathy. There were only two options: do whatever was necessary to save and hide the child, or watch as the last hope was taken from them. Bryndis had warned that they must wait until the time was right to reveal the new Heir, but she had no idea when that might be, and she knew the idea would bring no comfort to Simone.

She could not afford to dwell on that. She was the Queen now, and it fell to her to make the difficult decisions necessary to protect her people not just now, but for generations to come. And so, instead of telling Simone that her child might never be able to claim his true heritage, Bryndis said, "I will find someone willing to perpetuate the lie, someone trustworthy."

And with that, she dismissed the other woman for now. For a few moments, she could pause and mull over what had just happened, but she had to think quickly. This was earth-shattering news, and she had to act immediately to preserve the secret. She regretted that she could not promise Simone that her new husband would not be distasteful to her, but it was more important to hide her unborn child.

She had also not told Simone that it might be one generation or three, or as many as necessary, before a new heir of the Drake clan could come forward to claim his birthright. Better, in the meantime, to let their enemies think them beaten and broken, without recourse, cowering in fear of another attack.

As she left the safety of her tent, Bryndis was glad that she'd had the luxury of choosing her own mate and her own destiny. She was all too aware of the pain not choosing would inflict on the generations to come. Better, she thought, for there at least to be generations to come at all!

In the chaos of the camp, it took her a long time to find the man she was looking for. Her husband's elder cousin, Marcus Scott, was along with her husband one of their last surviving capable warriors. He was loyal to a fault and over the years had proven himself fully capable of keeping secrets. He was also, crucially, a widower.

Bryndis stormed into the makeshift practice field shouting, "Marcus, I need you!"

He glanced over and was promptly smashed on the head by his opponent's – her husband's – blunted practice sword. Bryndis winced in sympathy.

A while later, all three of them were hidden away in Bryndis's tent, which was once again spelled to silence. Bryndis had waited this long to tell them what was going on, but now she could no longer afford delays. Without preamble, she said, "Simone is pregnant. The child is Aiden's."

Neither of the men seemed surprised. Nor did they seem overly grieved, though neither of them had known Aiden Drake well, except by reputation.

"We always suspected this might happen," Marcus said, seeming less surprised than Bryndis had expected. "What course do we take now?"

It felt strange to be the one that everyone looked to for guidance. Bryndis was used to being the least of her kinswomen, someone of no consequence. The shift to being Queen had not yet truly sunk in, but there was no getting around it.

"We follow the plan that my kinswomen set," Bryndis said. "But…"

"Now we also have to keep this child a secret," her husband guessed. She nodded grimly.

"And that's why I need you, Marcus," Bryndis went on. "I need you to marry Simone. Claim that grief and shared suffering brought you together. And, when the time comes, claim that the child is yours."

He stared at her, unwilling to believe what she had just told him. Finally: "You're serious."

"Yes."

He stared at her a moment longer, then looked away with a sigh. "You know I can't stand her."

"I do," she admitted. "But you're the only one I can trust with this." There was no one else, they had lost too many of their young, unmarried men, and he must be just as aware of that as she.

"Fine," he said, looking her right in the eyes so she would know he was being completely honest. "I'll do it." It was all Bryndis could do not to sag with relief. "But," he went on, "the child had better be what you say, and it had better survive."

Bryndis had been hoping the same thing, herself.

 

 

It had already become day when Tommy realized abruptly that he'd fallen asleep where he sat vigil over his wife and friend. He'd missed the dawn altogether, and woke to find morning sunlight streaming into the ruins around him. He checked on Kimberly and Jason briefly, but was quickly reassured that they were breathing normally, almost as if they too were only sleeping. But he knew from their blank expressions that they were still bound by the dragon's spell, and had not yet returned to themselves.

For the first time in days, he actually felt _alive_. Alive, and confused. Now that he'd had a chance to rest and let everything sink in, he realized that he had no idea what was going on. He trusted Kimberly and Jason completely, and up until now he hadn't even thought of questioning them. But now… now he wanted some answers.

During the night the big wooden door to the cottage had shut. It opened as easily now as it had last night. Tommy half expected the fire dragon to have disappeared with the night, but the enormous red beast was still slowly circling the ruined cottage in an oddly soothing, undulating way. It was strange to see another dragon, so like Erë in its sheer size and in the reptilian shape of its face, but otherwise so utterly different. Hrag lacked Erë's huge wings, and his long, snakelike body seemed to float on magic alone.

For a while Tommy just stood in the doorway, watching the dragon slowly drift past and enjoying the feel of the warm morning breeze in his hair. Hrag's tail moved past, followed a few moments later by the dragon's huge head, which was no less intimidating by daylight than it had been in the night. He knew, instinctively, that this was a creature that could kill him easily, yet he felt no fear.

_You are awake,_ the dragon observed.

"I fell asleep," Tommy admitted, chagrined.

_I kept watch,_ Hrag informed him, as if that made it all right. The dragon ceased his circling to regard Tommy.

He decided to take a chance. "Hrag, what's going on in there?" The dragon's head tilted slightly to one side as he contemplated the question.

_Your companions are fulfilling a promise that I made to their ancestors a thousand years ago,_ Hrag explained. _They are learning of their past, so that they might better understand the choices they must make in the future._

It was the same sort of vague explanation Hrag had been giving them all along, and it didn't make any more sense to Tommy now than it had earlier. Dragons, he decided, were just impossible to understand. Not that he would stop trying any time soon. "What does that mean?" he asked.

_A thousand years is a fleeting thing for me, but it is a very long time for humans,_ Hrag said, his voice a deep rumble in Tommy's head. _I have bided my time and safeguarded the memories of those who went before, because in a thousand years much may be forgotten._

"But that doesn't make any sense," Tommy murmured, half speaking to himself. "Kim told me she could talk with her ancestor Bryndis. That's what led us here in the first place." How much, he wondered, could really get lost when Kimberly could speak with Bryndis herself?

_Ah, Bryndis,_ the dragon said. It seemed almost as if Hrag would have smiled, were he capable of it. _The fiery one. Your Kimberly is very like her, you know. In a thousand years, it seems, much may be lost, but much remains the same. I do not doubt that Kimberly's interactions with Bryndis are some remnant of ancient magics._

He knew that Kimberly possessed magic, but the idea that some of that power transcended a thousand years – all those generations – rendered Tommy speechless. He hadn't really stopped to consider just how much power she was turning out to have, not even knowing that she had somehow used that power to pull him back from the brink of death. To him, she was just Kimberly, the woman he loved, his wife. He couldn't imagine her without the power, but the full extent of that power was beginning to alarm him.

Rather than entering that particular stretch of dangerous territory, he asked, "How did you know Bryndis Hart?"

_Did you know that she was known not only as the First Queen, but as Friend of Dragons?_ Tommy did not know much about Bryndis Hart at all, and said as much. Hrag made a snorting sound that might have been true laughter. _She had a way about her,_ the dragon said. _She struggled in dealing with her own people, but she found no difficulty in befriending my kind. We met long after she had left this land, in another part of the world, and eventually she asked this favor of me: that I find the lost Sword and guard it until an Heir came forward to claim it and proved himself worthy._ He was silent for a long time, perhaps reminiscing. _This I have done_, he concluded sadly.

Somehow, that seemed to explain a lot about Kimberly. He'd seen the portrait of the First Queen that hung in the royal gallery in the castle back home, but she had seemed like this high and distant figure then, not as someone who had once lived and loved like any other person. And she certainly had not seemed like someone who just went out and made friends with a dragon. And yet he wouldn't put it past Kim to do the exact same thing, if the mood struck her.

_Come,_ Hrag said, _it is time to wake them._

"How do I do that?" Tommy asked, recalling his appointed role as "anchor" and expecting some sort of improbable task.

_As you normally would,_ the dragon said serenely.

Trying not to appear too irritated with the cryptic answer, Tommy went back into the ruined building. Jason and Kimberly had not stirred, indeed, had not so much as moved, at all since he went outside.

Watching her now, he realized slowly that Kimberly's breaths were perfectly timed with his own. He had a feeling that if he were to feel for her pulse, he would find her heart beating in time with his, as well. What had she _done_ when she brought him back from the edge of death?

He couldn't think about that too deeply. Not now, anyway. The very thought was vaguely horrifying.

Kneeling beside her, he gently roused her. He felt a jolt of magic as he touched his hand to her arm to rock her awake. She opened her eyes almost as soon as he'd touched her, blinking wearily and looking around her in confusion. For a horrifying moment, she seemed not to recognize him. And then she was just Kimberly again. "What happened?" she asked.

"Time to wake up," he told her.

She rubbed her face and groaned. "Wake up? It feels like I didn't sleep a wink…"

"It's morning now," he murmured, reaching over to brush a few stray strands of hair out of her face. "And Hrag says it's time to wake up."

He had thought that the implied point – that one did not argue with a dragon – would wake her right up, but she surprised him. "Trini and Zack!" she gasped. "I can't believe we wasted all night here… an entire night and day _gone_."

He frowned, not understanding. "What about Trini and Zack?"

She finally realized that he didn't have a clue what was going on. Even before she explained, he could see the fear and hurt in her eyes, and wondered how he hadn't noticed it before. "Trini and Zack… the messenger from Taye was a fake. It was all a ruse. They've been kidnapped and taken..."

"But why?" he managed. "Why kidnap Zack and Trini?"

"Because what better way to lure Jason into a trap?" she snapped, out of patience. Not with him, he knew, but with knowing her friends were in danger and doing nothing to help them. Realizing that she was out of line, she grimaced. "The Sword of Power is the one thing that can hurt Ivan Ooze, the sorcerer who has them now. So he wants to lure Jason to his castle and kill him. That way no one will be able to stop him ever again."

"And all of this?" he asked, gesturing around him where the dragon could be seen circling through gaps in the stonework.

"Was the dragon's price for giving the Sword to Jason." She sighed. "That stupid man was going to go racing off to… wherever this Ooze guy is without it. I convinced him otherwise, but now I wonder if we haven't wasted too much time. We don't even know where to find him yet." She squeezed her eyes shut against angry tears. "Oh, Tommy, I don't know how we're ever going to get them back."

He understood her pain, and wondered how Jason was dealing with all of this. If Kimberly felt guilty… then Jason was probably equal parts furious with himself for sending Trini and Zack into the trap in the first place, and shattered by guilt. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone.

Tommy would have liked to stay with Kimberly, even though nothing he could think to say seemed at all adequate to the dire situation, but now he had to see to Jason. If he knew anything about his friend, it was that Jason would want to be on the road again as soon as possible. And he owed it to Jason to help however he could.

Kimberly had seemed peaceful in her slumber. By contrast, Jason's breathing seemed out of tune and his expression was pained. "Come on, buddy," Tommy said, shaking Jason gently just as he had done for Kimberly. "Time to wake up."

But no matter what he tried, Jason would not wake.


	42. Fire and Ice

Kimberly watched, not quite understanding, as Tommy tried in vain to wake Jason. She felt as if she were still half in a dream herself, could not quite decide if she were really Kimberly or Bryndis. She knew on some level that she was Kimberly, but the knowledge seemed vague and distant. Bryndis's memories were too vivid and fresh, clouding her mind except for random moments of clarity. It made for one killer headache.

She was still trying to sort herself out, the sure knowledge that Trini and Zack were in imminent danger warring with the relentless need for sleep and the emerging realization that Jason was in trouble, too, and that she must do something about all of this before she could sleep. She sat perched on the edge of her little alcove, wishing she could turn her back on all of it and get some much-needed rest. But Jason and Zack and Trini needed her. And if they needed her, well, that was that.

She staggered awkwardly to her feet, feeling as if her legs were made of lead, and made her way slowly over to where Tommy was crouching beside Jason. _Tommy was supposed to be able to keep us safe through the dragon's spell,_ she thought. _That's why he had to come with us, to be "the anchor," whatever that is._ _So why isn't it working like Hrag said it would?_

She rested a hand gently on Tommy's shoulder, thinking to tell him to let her try, but she only got so far as whispering his name before the jolt of magic slammed into her from above and sent her to her knees. The headache increased a thousandfold, until black spots danced in her vision. It was a tremendous strain to rein her magic back in and stop it from surging wildly around her.

_What did that damn dragon do to me?_ she wondered angrily. But the pain began to dissipate almost as quickly as it appeared, and in its absence she was able to regain control over her runaway magic. She breathed a sigh of relief and waved off Tommy's attempts to steady her. "Jason," she managed to say, and hoped that Tommy would understand what she meant.

If the magic had affected her this badly, she was afraid of how it might have affected Jason. But mere moments later, he was opening his eyes and she could breathe a sigh of relief.

 

 

He was dying; charred inside and out, burned by magic beyond his understanding, magic that had slipped past all of his defenses to scald and destroy him. He remembered losing a battle, and somehow that thought led to the realization that he'd also lost the war. What war, he could not have said. But he had failed and the cause was lost, and now he would die for his failure. The moment of agony seemed drawn out forever. He lingered on the brink, trapped in the moment between heartbeats where pain consumed him.

And then a voice spoke to him. "Come on, Jase, you gotta wake up now."

It was a man's voice, but it was threaded through with magic that seemed both feminine and familiar. He recognized that magic. It was the same magic that had given him his red armor. For a moment he wondered _what red armor?_ And where that disjointed memory had come from, for it surely had not belonged to Aiden Drake. And then at last he recognized the magic, and he recognized the voice. Kimberly? Tommy?

In the space of an instant he remembered who he was, and jolted out of the dream and into the ruined building where he'd gone to sleep under the dragon's spell. He opened his eyes and found Kimberly and Tommy looking down at him with fear on their faces, followed swiftly by relief when he asked, "What the hell happened?"

"You got caught in the magic, that's all," Kimberly said.

_That's all, _he thought, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Blinking against the light, he realized that it was nearly midmorning, to judge by the way the bright spears of sunlight lanced down into the ruin from the clear blue sky that peeked cautiously through gaps in the stone. It was a complete contrast from the overcast world of his dream, which at the end had seemed to exist only in shades of ominous grey.

This world seemed harsh and far too bright by comparison. He would have liked to close his eyes and go back to sleep for a while, but he knew if he did he would only be plagued by nightmares of death. Even waking he could still feel the painful prick of Ooze's magic on his skin. He was not burned, but he might as well have been.

And while he now thought he understood Hrag's insistence on this ritual, which had shown him in vivid detail the dangers of wielding the Sword of Power in battle, he hated that it had taken up so much time. He'd wasted an entire night in Hrag's attempt to chasten him. And now as the dream-fog began to clear in earnest, he resented it.

It seemed forever ago that he had glimpsed Zack and Trini in the scrying pool. He'd only had a few seconds to look before Ivan Ooze intervened and made his grab for Dulcea, but he had recognized how grim their situation was. In that moment, he had known without a doubt that Zack and Trini didn't have much time left. It had felt almost as if something were calling him to them, demanding that he help them, something that went beyond his own loyalty and love.

He _had_ to save them. And he had to do it _soon_. There was no other choice. He knew it with every part of his being, though he could not have explained why.

Ignoring Kimberly and Tommy for the moment, he pushed himself to his feet (which took far more effort than he would have liked) and went outside to meet with Hrag. The dragon had looped his long body loosely around the ruin during the night, so that now his enormous head was facing the door. He still hovered disconcertingly above the ground, giving off a faint reddish light even in the bright sunlight.

"All right, Hrag," Jason began. "We've done what you asked. Can I rightfully claim the Sword now?"

_Indeed, you have done as I asked_, was the dragon's rumbling answer. _You understand now what is at stake?_

Jason thought back to the dream he'd experienced under Hrag's spell. Had those really been the memories of his ancestor? It had seemed so real that he found it hard to doubt. And yet at the same time he wanted very much to doubt. The carnage and suffering that he'd seen… he did not want to believe that Ivan Ooze could be that powerful. Which was probably why Hrag had insisted upon doing this in the first place.

His fingers brushed the hilt of the Sword at his hip, but he did not draw the blade from its scabbard. He still wanted to believe that he could win the fight to come. "Yes," he said. "I understand."

By now Kimberly had come to stand next to him. She nodded as well in response to Hrag's question. Jason was mildly curious about what she might have seen in the dragon's dream, but not curious enough to waste time asking for details now.

_Good,_ Hrag said, his voice a long drawn out rumble.

And with that the dragon seemed contented, his long promised task completed. Jason, however, was far from content. "Hrag, do you know where I can find Ivan Ooze?" he asked. He knew that he had only just woken from the dragon's dream. He knew, too, that the dragon would very likely consider such direct questioning to be impolite now that his duty was done, but he had to ask. If Hrag could possibly guide him to where Zack and Trini were, then he would risk a dragon's ire to find out.

The dragon regarded him with sad-seeming eyes. Finally, he said, _Yes, I know this thing._

"Then tell me where to go!" He did not dare to say _take me there_. Not yet. But he thought it.

Hrag was silent for a long time. _Even knowing what you now know, this is a risk you are willing to take?_

It was a risk that Jason had been trying not to think about ever since he woke up from the dream. He still wasn't clear on exactly how he had come to be the Heir to the Sword, but the dream had made it perfectly clear that if he died without a son of his own, the Sword's power would be lost to humankind forever. He wondered if Ivan Ooze knew that, too, and concluded that he probably did. It was the only way that kidnapping Zack and Trini made sense.

The realization that he would be walking right into a trap did not deter him in the least. That he might survive – and save the Sword's power for posterity – by sitting idly by while his friends died was unthinkable.

Hot air, like steam rising from a boiling pot, wafted over him as Hrag exhaled. _You are stubborn, for a human,_ the dragon said at last. _Most would falter in the face of what you have been shown, and yet you persist._

"Not just him," Tommy observed, his voice unreadable.

Jason didn't even have to glance over to know that Kimberly was still resolute beside him, too. And at the same time, he knew that there was no way he could let her and Tommy go with him on his quest. The burden of the Sword was his to bear. They had a future ahead of them, he reminded himself dully, as if he could convince himself that he didn't really want them to come with him. It was better for him to go alone to his doom, he thought, but he couldn't quite believe it.

He was stronger with them at his side, and he knew it.

He just couldn't bring himself to put them at risk, knowing what would happen to them – to _everyone _– if he failed.

"We all want to save our friends," Kimberly agreed. Her voice was rough. "So don't even think about trying to leave us behind," she added to Jason. "Hrag brought me here with you for a reason. I saw the past, just like you did. It had to be both of us or none of us. And whatever's to come… it's the same. All of us will go, or none of us will." As much as Jason hated to admit it, she was right. The dragon had referred to her as his shield, as if Kimberly had some role to play in the fight to come, much as the Sword would.

And yet he was still reluctant to agree to take her into battle. He wondered if she had died in the dragon-dream the way he had, and decided that she had not. If she had, would she be so reckless now? He ignored the fact that he was being exactly that reckless himself. "Hrag," he said, "if you won't tell me where Ivan Ooze is, will you at least take us back to Phaedos?"

The dragon was not fooled; neither were his friends. Jason ignored that, too.

_I will do this thing,_ Hrag said at last. But the look in his eyes said that he knew very well what Jason was up to.

It took some doing to find a suitable manner of climbing back onto Hrag's back. He was enormous, and the humans had no desire to be carried in his claws all the way back to the castle. But eventually they did find a bit of ruined wall that they could scramble up, and from which they could jump onto the dragon's back.

When they were at last airborne again, with Kimberly sandwiched with Jason in front and Tommy behind, she leaned forward into Jason and said furiously into his ear, "I don't know what you think you're up to, but you aren't getting rid of me this easily, Jason Lee Scott."

He didn't answer her.

Exhaustion was beginning to catch up with him. He might have slept while he underwent the dragon's dream, but he had woken feeling as if he had not rested at all. And now it began to seem as if the dream was creeping back in around the edges of his consciousness. It reminded him of what had happened to the Drakes in their folly all those centuries ago, it whispered of what evils Lord Zedd's torments might have wrought in his head. And it spoke insidiously of what Ivan Ooze would do, not only to him but to Trini and Zack, if he did not succeed in defeating him.

_If the Sword of Power is lost for good,_ it seemed to say, _then the whole world will be destroyed. And it will all be your fault._

And at the same time, it also said, _if you do nothing, then Zack and Trini will die, and that will be all your fault, too._

And also, _you cannot hope to win._

Jason stared straight ahead at Hrag's shining scales, and tried not to listen to the voices of doubt and despair in his head.

What he needed now, he knew, was time to sort through all of the things he'd seen in the dream. He needed time to learn the true power of the weapon he held, and to come to terms with what it meant about his past, and Kimberly's past, and the future they were working toward together. But he couldn't stand the thought of taking the time for that, knowing that Zack and Trini were in danger. Once more that inexplicable _something_ itched at his thoughts, reminding him that time was of the essence. He had to fight Ivan Ooze and save Trini and Zack, and he had to do it sooner rather than later.

It was with some surprise that he realized they had drawn near to the castle Phaedos while he was lost in his own thoughts. It seemed that the castle could not be as far as he had remembered, or that Hrag had flown with much greater speed this time around. He had not even had time to think of a way to convince Tommy and Kimberly to stay and let him go on alone.

He wished for a chance to speak with Hrag privately, but he had no choice but to simply go for it. He waited as long as he could, until Hrag had descended to hover over the castle's battlements, coiling his long body around one of the castle towers as he drifted. "Hrag," he said, thankful that at this speed he did not have to shout to be heard. "I need you to at least tell me where to find Ivan Ooze."

The dragon was ominously silent.

"Hrag!"

Suddenly the dragon ceased its slow drifting. _I have done all that was asked of me,_ it said irritably. _Who are you, mortal, to demand that I do more?_

It had not occurred to him that Hrag might deny his request for help. Somehow he had felt that the dragon was if not an ally, at least somewhat sympathetic. He had been a fool about that, just as he had been a fool for much of this entire journey, unthinking, assuming that things would simply work out the way that he wanted them to. He wondered if the Sword's power could convince a dragon to do his bidding… but he thought not. Hrag was one of the few creatures he had encountered that had no desire for the Sword, and he seemed completely uninterested in its power.

_You do not understand what you ask,_ the dragon said, the deep rumbling voice more harsh than Jason had ever heard it before, even when he was merely an intruder in Hrag's lair.

"I understand that my friends are in danger," Jason said, struggling to remain calm even as he anger flared. "I understand that I have to save them, and that if I don't fight against Ivan Ooze, he will destroy the world."

_You saw what happened to the last man who thought that the weight of that Sword was his to bear,_ Hrag responded. _And you still choose to follow him to the grave? You would condemn the entire world just for a chance at saving these two humans?_

Jason wanted to shout it, but he forced himself to rein in his fraying temper. "Yes." He would do anything if it meant saving Zack and Trini from the horrible fate that he had all unknowingly sent them into. When it came down to it, the one suffering at Ivan's hands should have been him, not them. At least he had a way to fight back. He had the Sword of Power, the one mortal weapon that could actually harm Ivan Ooze. Zack had only the small bit of magic that Kimberly had given him, and Trini had given up even that.

Disrupting Jason's furious thoughts, Hrag began to move again and said, _I will not deliver you to a pointless doom._

"You were perfectly happy killing me yourself before I did whatever it was that proved to you that I was the Heir!"

The only response that got out of Hrag was a low grumble that might have been a growl.

He could feel Kimberly staring at him in outrage, her eyes boring into his back like hot coals, and wondered if she had always been able to do that or if it was something to do with her magic. It reminded him unsettlingly of what had happened in his dream.

Long ago, something had convinced Hrag to stand guard over the Sword of Power, keeping it safe from people like Zedd and Ivan Ooze for a thousand years. "Whatever it was that my ancestors did to earn your loyalty," he said, feeling the Sword almost begin to burn at his hip. "I call upon that now and ask you to help me."

_It was not your ancestor that asked my help,_ Hrag explained, serene once more. _It was hers._

Kimberly's? That explained why she had taken part in the ritual, then.

_And I will not carry the descendent of Bryndis Hart to her doom._

Jason supposed she was just tenacious enough to insist on coming along no matter what he did… and then an idea struck him. As they circled back over the battlement on their way round the tower, he twisted and gave Kimberly a shove. She had been completely unprepared for such a tactic, and shrieked her outrage as she lost her balance and fell. She would have tumbled completely off the dragon's back and onto the hard stones that made up the battlement below if Tommy hadn't grabbed hold of her first.

Tommy sputtered in confusion for a heartbeat while Kimberly shouted every curse at Jason that she could think of. Their eyes met for an instant; Jason looked away first. And then Jason shoved Tommy, too, and the two of them fell the fifteen feet to the battlement below.

Alone with the dragon now, or as alone as he was going to get, Jason said, "Take me to Ivan Ooze, damn you! Don't you see we don't have time to waste?" Fresh waves of angry impatience washed over him, and it felt as if the Sword really _was_ going to burn him, as if it were responding to – and amplified by – the force of his feelings. "If you take me there now, we can leave Kimberly here where she and Tommy will be safe. You won't be forsaking your oath to her ancestor."

_Hrmmmm,_ Hrag rumbled uncertainly, but slowly but surely he began to uncoil from the tower and drift higher into the sky.

"You know I speak the truth. Ivan Ooze is dangerous. He has to be stopped." Momentum carried him onward now, though he was not sure where the words came from. Had he really thought this all along, and just refused to consciously consider it? "You told me that the world began in darkness, and that it will end in darkness… but I don't believe that's true. I think that it doesn't have to end at all. I think the world can be saved, but we have to stop Ivan Ooze to do it."

Their course turned, and they headed to the south and west.

_The world began in darkness, _Hrag mused. _But it might not ever end at all. And that would be the most interesting thing of all, would it not?_

 

 

For a long time Tommy could only lay where he had fallen and stare, stunned, at the receding form of Hrag. Beside him, and thankfully unharmed from her fall, Kimberly fairly bristled with anger. It had not occurred to him until just that moment that Jason might really be determined to do this without any help from his friends. And then Dulcea stormed up onto the battlement.

Tommy had seldom seen Dulcea display emotion this way in all the time he had known her. Now, she was openly furious. He could feel the places where her magic power, rampant in anger, clashed against Kimberly's, and wondered when he had developed this sensitivity.

"What have you done?" Dulcea demanded.

Kimberly met her glare head-on, unrepentant. "I've done what I could to help save Zack and Trini. And I'd do it all again if I had to." She stormed off, but Tommy was not quick to follow. Dulcea's fury – at what he saw as a good thing – had piqued his curiosity.

"Dulcea, what's going on?" he asked quietly. "You led Jason all this way so he could get that sword, and now that he's got it, you're angry?"

"Tommy, right now forces beyond even my understanding are in flux. This is a time of great importance: what Jason and Kimberly do in the next few hours or days may determine the fate of the entire world, and permanently alter the balance between good and evil."

"So you're saying they could strike a definitive blow for good?"

"I do not think it likely."

That surprised him. "Why not?"

"Jason is wounded inside. Yes, I wanted him to have the sword, but I also wanted him to have time to _heal_. He needed care and guidance right now, after what he has been through, not another shock. Certainly not this." Tommy had no response to that. As much as he liked and trusted Jason, he could see her point all too clearly. She went on, "Right now, Jason would want to see the whole world burn if it meant he would get his friends back. And instead of helping him recover, you gave him a _dragon_ and the only weapon on this earth that is completely unstoppable."

"And that might have been a mistake," he concluded.

Dulcea nodded. "Unless you and Kimberly can find a way to stop it, the darkness may consume him. If he destroys Ivan Ooze out of anger… I do not like to think on what might become of him."

He had the sudden mental image of Jason becoming the next Lord Zedd, or worse, and knew he couldn't let that happen. "What can we do?"

"I do not know," she admitted. "Zordon and I did not foresee this eventuality, and my role in this was to have been small, only to watch and to guide."

"So you've both been what, using us all this time?"

"Tommy," Dulcea said with infinite patience. "You and I, and Zordon, and Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, and even Ivan Ooze… but most of all Kimberly and Jason… we are part of something larger than what can be seen on this mortal plane. We are like pawns in a game that divine forces, which you mortals mistakenly call gods, have been playing from time immemorial. The game must end in balance or annihilation. There is no other option."

This was all entirely too esoteric for Tommy's taste. "I don't get it."

Dulcea took a deep breath and let it go. "Understand this: for every immortal on the side of good, like myself and Zordon, there is a corresponding immortal on the side of evil. Balance can be found in having equal numbers… or equal amounts of power spread between the two sides. By killing Rita and Zedd, all of you, and Kimberly and Jason in particular, have begun upsetting the balance. The scales are tipping toward good."

"That sounds like a good thing," he pointed out.

"Tip the scale too far and the entire thing will come crashing down. Ivan Ooze is the most powerful evil this world has ever known. If Jason destroys him at all, the repercussions may be dire. But if he destroys Ooze in anger, he may well become the next great force of evil himself. Power such as that… it has a tendency to corrupt those it touches." She frowned. "That he killed Lord Zedd in fury the way he did was an ill portent."

"Even if it was righteous fury?" Tommy quipped weakly, earning a baleful glare from the sorceress.

"Even if it was righteous fury. It sets a terrible precedent."

Tommy began to understand. "Now that he's killed once out of anger…"

"It will be easier to do it a second time."

"Well, shit."

Dulcea nodded. "I do not know how we can reach him now. I have tried reaching out to him mentally, the way we sorcerers communicated of old, but for a mortal with no magic of his own he is very skilled at blocking out mental connections. When I could not contact him, I had no choice but to seek you out and see what you had to say for yourself."

Tommy was grim. "I think I have an idea."

He didn't wait for Dulcea to respond before he took off, but he thought he caught a faint smile on her face. He went straight to the chambers he shared with Kimberly, not bothering to look for her just yet. She would need some time yet for her temper to cool. And in the meantime he could at least attempt to do something productive.

It only took a moment to retrieve the dragon dagger from his gear, and then he made his way up to the highest battlements of the castle, ignoring all of the Phaedans he passed by that tried to delay him. They wanted to know what had become of their emperor, but he had no time for their foolishness.

The air was frigid out on the battlements. While he had been inside, a fierce wind had blown in out of the north, foretelling the coming of winter, but he considered it a good omen. It felt much the same as the air had felt on Erë's mountain. He took a moment to calm himself, breathing the chill air in and out, content for the moment to just _be_.

And then he brought the dagger to his lips and played Erë's call.

_If I have ever needed your help, Erë, it is now. _Please_ hear my call._

The notes reverberated and echoed strangely through the air, and when they had faded he played the melody again for good measure. He was not sure why he had expected something to happen immediately, but it did not.

When he turned to go back inside to get out of the cold and the wind for a bit, he found that Dulcea had gone, probably in utter exasperation, but in the meantime he had acquired an audience of nearly half a dozen Phaedans – and Kimberly. The Phaedans were murmuring nervously amongst themselves, but Kimberly approached to stand with him in the cold.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Would you believe me if I said I thought it would call a dragon?"

"So that's how you did it? Then that's really how you won her over?"

He smiled in spite of himself. "Hard to believe, isn't it? But that melody means something to Erë, and she said to play it again if I ever had need of her."

Kimberly took his hand in hers and pressed close to him, resting her head against his shoulder. "Then I hope she hears it now," she murmured.

They stood together on the battlement like that for a long time. And for a very long time, nothing happened. When Tommy caught sight of the glinting white _thing_ in the sky, he told himself he must have imagined it. He told himself that it was freezing out here and they shouldn't be standing out in the cold for so long, not when he was still recovering from what should have been a mortal injury, but he couldn't bring himself to go inside just yet. It felt like going inside would mean giving up.

And then Kimberly saw the shape in the sky and gasped. "Am I seeing things?" she asked. Tommy wasn't sure whether she wanted him to answer or not, so he kept his mouth shut. And he truly did not need to say anything. Soon enough, the shape in the sky drew nearer and nearer, and resolved itself into a shining white dragon-shape, gliding down toward them on enormous wings.

Erë descended rapidly, alighting amid a flurry of winds that felt like deepest winter. Tommy had almost forgotten how enormous she truly was, but he was reminded now as she rested on her hind legs very near to the castle wall, and towered over the castle's battlement. She lowered her long neck so that her eyes were level with Tommy and Kimberly. She inhaled deeply and almost seemed to frown – if her great draconian face were even capable of producing a frown.

_We meet once more, Tommy Oliver,_ she said. Her voice echoed impossibly loudly in his head, just as Hrag's had done, but her words seemed as hard and sharp as shards of ice where Hrag's voice was fiery hot.

"Yes," Tommy said. "I didn't know what else to do."

The dragon's icy eyes flicked from Tommy to Kimberly and back. _Your dilemma should not be possible,_ she said, sounding more confused than offended. _No power but my own should be able to bind you, and yet you are bound._

Tommy was taken aback. What in the world was Erë talking about? And then it hit him: she was talking about Kimberly. When she'd saved his life, had she somehow managed to use her magic to bind him to her? Erë was right. It shouldn't be possible. Even Rita Repulsa's magic had been unable to withstand the force of Erë's power. Kimberly was no dragon. She was merely a mortal woman, not an ancient power born of the earth itself. Her power should not have been able to match Erë's, either. But he said none of this. Instead, he said, "I don't understand."

_Your life has been bound to this woman's, _Erë told him.

Kimberly had gone pale. "What?" she murmured, her voice thick with horror. "I couldn't have… Is _that_ what I did? Why didn't Dulcea _say_ anything?" She was staring down at her hands as if she were frightened of herself.

_I do not know what she has done,_ the dragon went on, ignoring Kimberly.

"Can you undo it?" Kimberly interrupted.

Erë scrutinized Tommy for a long moment. _If I remove the binding, he will die._

That seemed like a hell of a choice. "I'd rather live, if you don't mind," he decided. If it came to that, he would much rather find his life bound to Kimberly than to anyone else. "And that isn't why I called you, anyway."

The dragon's enormous head tilted slightly for a moment. _Then explain yourself. What need do you have of Erë, Guardian of the Skies and Queen of the High Mountaintops, that you would call me all this way?_

Tommy fiddled with the dragon dagger, feeling suddenly self-conscious. "Erë, we need your help. Hrag took our friend south –"

There echoed a sound like harsh laughter; Erë threw her head back for a moment, exhaling forcefully. Snow fell gently around the humans. _Hrag? The fire dragon is no match for the likes of me._

"We don't want to fight him," Tommy tried to clarify.

"We need to catch him," Kimberly added. "He's taking our friend Jason south to fight Ivan Ooze."

Erë bristled. _Ivan Ooze? The great evil has reawakened?_

"Yes, and he has kidnapped two of our friends," Tommy explained. "Jason is trying to save them."

"And he's so stupid and stubborn that he wouldn't let anyone go with him," Kimberly interjected furiously. "He's going to need help, and… you're our only hope of getting it to him."

There was a long silence as Erë merely stared at them.

_Then come,_ the great white dragon said at last, her eyes flashing dangerously. Tommy realized suddenly that Erë was no friend and ally of Hrag's, and he'd been a fool to assume she would be; if anything the two dragons were rivals. He was no longer certain that calling upon Erë had been a good idea. Baring long sharp teeth, Erë said, _We will catch the fiery Hrag, and show him the error of his ways._

 

 

Billy was hip-deep in stacks of books and loose sheets of paper when Katherine found him. He had been ensconced in what remained of Zedd's office for days. Ever since he found out what happened to Tommy, really. The masses of ancient books and papers were a perfect distraction, keeping fear and horror at bay in the aftermath of Zedd's death and the reawakening of Phaedos. If he was busy going through the myriad of undiscovered books in their unorganized piles, he did not have to think about what had happened to his friends. About what was still happening to Zordon.

As he shifted a stack of books from one pile to the next, sneezing violently as dust clouded up into the air, he realized with a start that Kat was standing in the doorway. She was leaning tiredly against the doorframe, her blue eyes filled with worry. He had no idea how long she'd been there watching him.

"Kat," he began, feeling ashamed that it had taken him so long to notice her.

"Something terrible has happened," she interrupted. "Jason and Kim are gone. They went after the Sword of Power," she went on, a tremor in her voice. "They came back last night with a dragon and they took Tommy away with them."

None of this made any sense whatsoever to Billy. He struggled to wrap his mind around what she had just said and wondered if he had buried himself so deeply in this work that he hadn't been there when his friends needed him most. "But Tommy is still recovering," he protested slowly.

Kat shook her head. "Even so, he went with them."

She was terrified, he realized. She seemed to know more about what was going on than she had told him, and it was obviously troubling her greatly. Billy set aside his books and waded through the piles that surrounded him. By the time he reached her, he realized she was shaking. He murmured her name, startled at seeing her so vulnerable and frightened after the transformation she had undergone during the fight against Zedd's forces. Then, the true depth of her inner strength had shown through.

Now, as she closed her eyes her expression was pained. The steely courage that had helped her slay so many of Zedd's minions was gone, and she looked like nothing so much as a lost little girl.

"I wish there was something we could do," she confessed. "We're at the end of our journey now. This is when we should be celebrating our victory… but it seems like everything is falling apart instead."

He was suddenly sorry that he had neglected his friends, especially Katherine, who had so often felt the outsider on this adventure. But instead of supporting them, he had thought only to bury himself in the comfortable idea of work to be done so that he did not have to think about anything else. "Tell me everything that's happened," he told her. The bits she had told him already were worrying, but he needed the full picture before he could formulate a plan.

It was a longer story than he had anticipated, and more worrisome, too, but when she had finished it seemed as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. But if she felt better from having shared her fears, Billy felt more concerned.

If Trini and Zack truly had been kidnapped, as Dulcea claimed, and by an evil force even more powerful than Lord Zedd, the implications were horrifying. What had seemed like victory might turn almost at once to defeat, and all the secrets that he had only just begun to discover here in Phaedos would be for naught.

The thought of Trini, imprisoned and come to harm, stabbed at his heart.

He almost wished that Jason had told him this news himself, but on second thought he knew what Jason would have done. That Katherine had found out was only because Kimberly had told her, and she had in turn gone to Dulcea for answers. Jason had undoubtedly planned to leave in secret, and had only taken Kimberly at her insistence. And it was probably better that way. With just the two of them they could travel swiftly and unhindered, though Billy had to wonder what the Phaedans thought of all of this.

They had been eager to accept Jason as their new leader, through some obscure old custom of theirs. They had been less quick to accept that he was not as biddable as they might have hoped. And above all they had been obstinate in their secretive observations of Billy. They did not hinder his curiosity or his research, even when he began to make his way through Zedd's accumulated books and papers, but he was always aware that he was being monitored. He wondered in a vague way if he was being monitored now, and decided that he probably was.

He also decided that he was done hiding for the moment. "If anyone will know what to do," he told Kat, "it's Dulcea."

Kat nodded. He gathered from her dubious expression that she was not sure they would find out anything new from talking to Dulcea at this juncture. But he wanted to see for himself what the sorceress might have to say.

It took a while to find her, but eventually he managed it. She stood more or less alone on the battlement atop the castle, looking into the northeast. There were a few Phaedans milling about, clad in official-looking uniforms that clearly meant more to them than they did to him, but they gave Dulcea a wide berth.

"Is it true?" he asked her with a bluntness that surprised even himself. A surprisingly frigid wind gusted past him as he spoke – winter, already? - and at first he thought she had not heard him at all.

But then she answered, "That your friends were taken by Ivan Ooze, and that Jason, Tommy, and Kimberly have gone off in the company of dragons to do battle with the monster?" She looked at him fiercely. "Yes, it is true."

Billy's mind reeled. This was more than Katherine had told him. A glance in her direction told him that she had not known these latest developments. Dragons? Kat had mentioned only one such beast… although Billy recalled how Tommy had once set out to seek redemption and had returned under a dragon's protection. Had Tommy called upon that dragon to help him now? It seemed likely.

"We want to help," he said, without thinking about it. Because he did want to help, even if he wasn't sure how.

"Guess we'll have to get in line, then," Rocky said from behind him. "Because we want to help, too." Aisha and Adam were with him, as always, and the three of them looked ready to do battle. Billy frowned slightly, seeing Aisha decked in mismatched armor that looked as if it had been scrounged up from somewhere deep within the castle. Her magic ring was nowhere to be seen.

What had prompted that, he wondered.

Dulcea turned to look at the five of them, and her expression turned from angry and defeated to thoughtful. All of them, the knight and his squires, and the two archivists, stood their ground. They wanted to help their friends, and if that meant fighting against another powerful force of evil, then that was what they would do.

"There might be a way," Dulcea said at last. "Come with me."

And with Rocky leading the way, they followed Dulcea back into the castle.


	43. Ninjetti

When she followed Dulcea down into the castle, the last place Aisha expected to go was the dungeon. But that was exactly where they went. Down and down, into what must have been the very depths of the earth, until Aisha wondered just how deep the passageways could possibly go. This dungeon was no mere cluster of cells in the topmost basement level like the one back home, but a massive complex.

Aisha paused. Kimberly's kingdom had at some point become "home" but at the same time it could never be more home than the memory of the place where she had been born and raised. Just as she knew that Phaedos would never truly be "home" for Jason no matter how long he remained there. She wondered briefly what that meant, and what it would mean in the months to come. If she lived to see those months at all…

Rocky bumped her with a shoulder as he passed her by. "You okay?"

She nodded and fell into step beside him. Adam was on his other side, as always. "Just thinking some really morbid things," she murmured offhandedly.

"Seems kind of appropriate," Adam muttered.

"Doesn't it though?" she responded with cheerful animosity while Rocky pointedly ignored both of them. He knew what they were up to, no matter that he tried to hide it; bickering with someone was Aisha's way of keeping the fear at bay. Although she wasn't sure yet just what she was afraid of, other than the vague specter of looming death and disaster.

Dulcea had said nothing during their descent, and she said nothing now. She led them silently to the deepest level of the dungeon, the torch in her hand their only light. And when they came at last to what Aisha thought must surely be their destination, Dulcea merely indicated that they wait near a surprisingly large doorway. Then she handed her torch off to Billy and gave the door a gentle shove.

It was twice Aisha's height and made of solid stone, but it seemed to swing open easily when Dulcea pushed a hand against it. She entered, and the others clustered in the doorway, watching. The room inside was so large that it was gloomy even near the torchlight. Dulcea was on the fringes of the light now, and seemed to be searching for something, though Aisha couldn't tell what.

The floor was made of plain, ancient stone, covered over with ages of dust and dirt. And yet as she watched, Aisha thought she could make out a pattern in the placement of the stones; they were not merely lined up next to one another, they formed large shapes which seemed to radiate from some central point. They were part of a pattern.

"Ah," Dulcea murmured an instant before certain of the lines took on a brilliant blue sheen. "So the lines of power are still active…"

The room was beautiful in the ethereal blue light. Aisha looked around, wide-eyed, at the thin blue lines that laced and wove their way along the floor and across the walls and ceiling, encasing the entire room within their pattern. "What is this place?" she found herself asking aloud.

"It is the reason that this castle was built here," Dulcea explained, "and the reason battles have been waged for control of this land since time immemorial. A font of ancient power arises here, for those with the knowledge to access it." She turned to look at them then, and there was a faint smile on her face. Even Aisha could feel the ripples of power now that she was practically standing on the source, but it was so well hidden that it was practically imperceptible from anywhere else in the castle.

"If this was here all along, why did Zedd never use it?" Rocky asked.

_And why did no one tell us about it?_ Aisha wondered, but she kept her silence because she wanted to hear the answer to Rocky's question, too.

"Because he did not know how," Billy guessed quietly.

"Exactly." Dulcea's smile widened slightly. "He might have claimed the prize, but without the key he could never access its true power. So for a thousand years he sat on this spot and could not get at the power it held, though I am sure he tried. All he could hope to do was prevent others from claiming it for themselves." She seemed to derive a certain amount of pleasure from that fact. Aisha supposed that Dulcea had to take her victories where she could get them; after all, she'd lost Phaedos, but in the end she had not lost the war. At least not yet.

"And all this time, you knew how to use it?" Aisha found herself asking.

"Yes," Dulcea said. "I knew, but I could not hope to take back the castle alone. Zedd's magic was potent, and he knew dozens of ways of countering every spell I could think of." Aisha was beginning to appreciate just how remarkable Kimberly and Jason's victory over Zedd had truly been. Based on what Dulcea had told them, it hardly seemed possible. And yet she knew it had happened. That Phaedos was free from Zedd's tyranny once more was proof enough of that.

"Then now that we have this power at our disposal," Rocky began, "what do you propose we do with it?"

"The power that arises here can take many forms," Dulcea explained. "In the old times, before the great war, a gate was fashioned here." The glowing blue lines seemed to converge at the center of the room, forming a large ring. If Aisha looked at it just right, it seemed almost like it could be a portal or doorway of some sort, heading down into the earth.

Dulcea went on, "When the power is properly activated and channeled, then the gate provides access from this world to the spirit world."

The spirit world was not a place Aisha liked to think about. As far as she could understand it, it was a place that existed in parallel to her own world, where strange creatures dwelled and from whence magic had originally come. She'd ventured there once, or so it had seemed at the time, in a fever-dream when she was young and very ill. And she had no intention of going back, thank-you-very-much. But then she thought of Kimberly, and of Trini and Zack, and knew that if this was what it took to keep them safe, she would walk a thousand miles through the spirit world.

"In the mists of the spirit world, you will each be faced with a challenge," Dulcea was saying. "If you fail, you may be lost to the mortal world forever. But if you succeed… then you may pass through the spirit world unharmed. And you may gain the power you need to help your friends."

Aisha knew, with a sinking feeling in her gut, what Rocky and the others would say. It was easy for them to say. They didn't know what they would be facing if they went through the portal. Aisha did, or close enough.

And yet she found herself agreeing right along with the others. If it meant they could help their friends, they would do this.

"Then come," Dulcea said, beckoning them into the blue glow with her. "Enter the gateway here. I cannot tell you what form the spirit world will take for you. I can only tell you that you will be challenged, and you must overcome that challenge in order to escape with your life. To truly succeed, you must master your own heart and make the power of the spirit world your own. Beyond that, I cannot guide you."

When the humans had clustered around her at the center of the room, Dulcea took the torch back from Billy and its flame was suddenly extinguished. The six of them stood illuminated only by the lines of power and their bluish light.

There was no literal gateway in the room, just the gently pulsing blue light and Dulcea's softly chanted words. Exhaustion broke over Aisha like a wave as Dulcea's words took on a hypnotic quality. She fought against sleep for several minutes before finally succumbing.

 

 

Aisha opened her eyes groggily. Her head pounded with the remnants of what must have been a killer dream. She gazed blearily around her and realized from the sideways tilt of everything around her that she was lying on her side on the ground. Though little enough was visible in the gloom, the dirt floor beneath her cheek and the rough rope around her wrists told her exactly where she was: the town jail. Again.

She sat up, ignoring the persistent pain in her head, and tried to remember what she had done to merit such punishment this time. Her hair fell over her shoulders in thick braids, blocking out even the dimness of the jail as her head tipped forward and it shifted to curtain her face.

She stayed there, motionless, until the memories came trickling back in. They came in fits and starts, disordered and turmoiled. Her father wanted her to get married, to make a powerful alliance for her family and a good trade connection for their town. She was young, true, but it was not unheard of and the time was ripe. Only Aisha didn't want to get married, so she'd tried to run away in order to escape that fate.

Last night had been her big chance… and that was where her memory faltered. She couldn't quite remember exactly what had happened, but she knew she must have failed. Someone must have caught sight of her as she tried to leave town.

Despair clawed at her even as she raged inside. _This is _not _my fate,_ she told herself feverishly. _No one can force me to do this, not even him. That man means to hurt me, I know it!_ But she knew no one in town would dare defy her father any more than they would dare object to the windfall of a union between two such powerful families. And she had not a single good argument against the marriage, not when all her father wanted was for his eldest daughter to do the right thing for everyone, instead of just doing whatever she wanted as she was accustomed to doing.

No argument except her gut instinct, that is.

But she did not think she could escape now anyway. Her father wasn't going to give her a chance to run away again, not when the most auspicious wedding date was so near at hand – in just two more days. And certainly not when so much was riding on this marriage.

_I'm only fourteen,_ she thought petulantly, not that it mattered. She wouldn't be expected to consummate the marriage until she was officially of age, and she might even be allowed to remain with her family until that time, as if that somehow made it all better. Her father had told her gently that she might someday come to love her chosen husband, as he had come to care for the wife that had been chosen for him. Her younger siblings had looked on her with sympathy in their eyes that day, but only Grandmother had dared to protest, and Grandmother was dead and gone now.

Somehow that last thought didn't seem quite right to Aisha, but she couldn't figure out why. Her head seemed filled with haze that would not clear.

With Grandmother gone, there was no one to fight for her. No one but Aisha herself.

She almost laughed bitterly at her own foolishness. Her hands were bound and she was locked up in the town jail. What hope did she have of fighting her way free? For all she knew, they intended to keep her here until the wedding.

She heard footsteps outside of the building that served as the town's jail and mentally prepared herself for whatever might happen next. She clung to a vain hope that rather than being angry, her father would finally understand the depths of her fear and distaste for this marriage.

It was indeed her father that had come to speak with her. Aisha stared at him from her place on the ground, silent and proud.

"Aisha, why will you not even try to think of others beyond yourself?" he asked, his voice not unkind.

_Because my destiny is greater than this, I know it! I am meant for so much more than marrying some big shot with good trade connections that acts like he doesn't even know I exist, except when he wants to…_ But she said none of that, partly because it horrified her and partly because she knew that all of her protestations would simply fall on deaf ears, as they always had.

_I have to find another way out of this,_ she realized. _Being indignant and angry is getting me nowhere. But I can't reason with him, either…_

"Father, this is," she began.

_It's not right._

_None of this is._

Light seemed to flash in her head, a bolt of lightning in her mind.

_It's not right. I'm not that girl anymore. I'm almost twenty now, and I've journeyed farther than Father could have ever imagined._

She gasped. _And I did it because Grandmother helped me. She didn't really die – that's why this memory is wrong._

"Father, this is wrong," she said, and this time her voice was strong. "I don't belong here, and I certainly don't belong with him. Somewhere out there, far away from here, there's another man… and he needs me. And my tale will only grow greater from there, and you cannot keep me from it for the sake of your own small ambitions."

Her father gaped at her, and she realized with a start that he had left the jail's door ajar behind him. She was sure he had closed the door behind him when he came in, but now she could see a sliver of light creeping in from the outside.

She saw her chance and seized it. While her father was still staring at her in bafflement, Aisha sprang for the door. It didn't matter that her hands were still bound behind her, or that her father grabbed for her – and missed by mere inches. She _remembered_. She was _free_.

She made it past her father, shouldered her way out the door, and sprinted for the forest at the edge of town. As she ran, her bonds seemed to fall away and it all came rushing back to her. The journey to Phaedos, Kimberly… Rocky and Adam… running away from home, and succeeding because her grandmother had protected her and showed her the way… She opened her eyes as the trees drew nearer and nearer, and nearly tripped and fell in her shock.

There was a bear waiting for her at the edge of the forest.

It was enormous, as tall on all fours as Aisha was on her two feet, at least. Its fur was shaggy brown and tipped with gold. But despite its massive size and fearsome appearance, its eyes were gentle. Aisha barely noticed any of these things. This bear was no stranger to her; it was the symbol of her family, the guardian spirit that protected every member of the family during life and after. Even in her darkest moments, she had stubbornly clung to the belief that Mother Bear, as the family had always referred to the spirit, had followed her in her journeys and would always protect her. Seeing the proof of her belief stirred her heart and brought tears to her eyes.

"Mother Bear," she murmured. She was hesitant, not sure what else to say, but her heart felt ready to burst with joy.

_My child,_ the bear's voice was fluid and melodic in Aisha's head, and sounded suspiciously like her grandmother's voice, _be welcome._

"I have come to seek your aid," she attempted to explain, recognizing that she had escaped the spirit world's trap and now could request the power she needed to fulfill her quest in the mortal world.

_I know._Somehow, she knew that the bear really did know.

"Will you help me?" she asked, knowing she could not bear it if the bear denied her.

_You gave up a great gift so that another might be saved, _Mother Bear commented.

Aisha bowed her head. She had almost forgotten about that, and certainly hadn't expected for it to come up again now. "I know. But Trini needs it more than I do." She did not say it, but she knew that Bear understood: _I have you. What do I need a magic ring for?_

_You are wise and generous beyond your years, my daughter, to think always of others before yourself,_ Mother Bear commended. _And so I will give you the gift of my power. Help your friends. Protect the world from the forces of darkness._

The great bear moved forward to press against her. Aisha instinctively wrapped her arms around the animal's neck, holding tight to her guardian spirit for a moment. Gradually, she realized that the bear wore something around its neck; the moment she touched it the necklace came loose in her hands and, drawing back, she saw that it was shimmering gold and amber. The pendant at the end of the chain was carved in the shape of the bear.

Even just holding it in her hands, Aisha could feel the power of it coursing through her, making her skin prickle and her spirit soar. With this power, she felt she could do anything. The bear sniffed at her hair and licked her ear, and she heard Mother Bear say, _Take it, my child, and know that I will _always _be with you._

Surprised to find tears in her eyes, Aisha could only nod.

She placed the pendant around her own neck, but did not stop clasping the bear shaped pendant in her fist. "I'll remember," she said as the bear spirit faded away. Even though the bear spirit had disappeared from sight, Aisha could still feel its presence surrounding her, protecting her. _Mother Bear..._ she thought, and it seemed that she heard a quiet, rumbling laughter echoing in her head.

 

 

Rocky awoke grudgingly and quickly realized that somehow he had made it back to his bed last night. That or someone had had the foresight to bring him back there from wherever he'd ended up. He wasn't quite sure how that had happened, since the last thing he remembered from that night was making a complete ass of himself at his parents' party and picking a fight with one of the visiting knights. He vaguely remembered taking a fist full in the face, which the aching throb in his head seemed to confirm.

He rolled over and squeezed his eyes shut against the sunlight that stabbed its way into his bedroom past the thick curtains. _Gods,_ he thought, _I am such a fool._

In moments like this he could realize that acting out was not the way to change his destiny. In other moments it was much, much easier to simply act like a jerk at parties and pick fights with important individuals, and generally not do at all what his parents wished him to do. Because what his parents wanted him to do was to pick a woman, get married, and start producing heirs.

He sat up, braced his elbows on his knees, and let his head drop into his hands.

He was the only male child in the DeSantos family. His many sisters seemed not to matter at all to his parents, for they were free to marry – or not – as they chose. But as the only male, it was Rocky's responsibility to sire at least one son to carry on the family name and inherit its many estates. And when Rocky asked why they could not just do as the royal Harts did, and bequeath whatever they wanted, including inheritance rights, to the numerous DeSantos daughters, he was met with stares as hard as cold steel.

It wasn't his fault the love of his life was a man. At first his parents had quietly ignored his infatuation with Adam Park, thinking it to be some sort of phase he would simply outgrow. But now that he was of age to marry and start producing heirs, they expected him to move on, and were becoming increasingly blunt in their requests for him to find a girl to take to wife. As if he could set Adam aside just to please his parents, just because everyone was too stubborn to give his sisters the opportunities they deserved when he could have them instead.

A long time later, he actually managed to rouse himself, dress in clean clothes, and make his way out of his bedroom in search of breakfast. That it was past noon mattered little to him. Breakfast was an easy way to avoid the inevitable for just a little while longer: the summer festival would have started at dawn today, and he had no wish to attend. The festival was traditional, having been held stubbornly every year for centuries at this point, but this year it was yet another opportunity for his parents to throw likely young women at him in the hopes of making a match.

He didn't want to go, but he knew he would at least have to put in an appearance. It would be considered bad luck for the entire estate and the surrounding country if the DeSantos heir did not deign to show up at the festival, no matter how much he hated the idea himself.

By the time he finished his breakfast, he was wondering where the hell Adam had got to. Usually, he was right there to chastise Rocky for his ill-considered and reckless behavior, but this morning he was nowhere to be seen. And he remained absent while Rocky dawdled his way through getting ready for the festival and was finally forced to accept that he must indeed go join the festivities.

He meandered his way angrily down impeccably-kept paths to the festival grounds, which were tucked into a far corner of the family estate. The grounds were festively decorated, much as they were every year, and thronging with people, for during festivals the estate was often thrown open to any who would enter, rather than only to those with official business with the family. People came from far and wide to enjoy the music and food and all the other festivities that went along with the celebration.

Rocky had loved the summer festival when he was a child. Now it was just one more chore that had to be done. He joined in the dancing and flirted with just enough girls to keep his parents off his back, and he smiled for the benefit of everyone else. But the music seemed out of tune and the food tasted like ash in his mouth and he couldn't wait to go home – and to figure out where the hell Adam had gone off to.

Somehow he got through the day unscathed and without causing any major scenes. But as he lay in bed that night, he couldn't escape the sense that something had been _wrong_ at the festival today. It seemed almost as if something had been missing, but he couldn't figure out what it might have been. Everything had gone precisely according to plan. He'd done his part exactly as a good son should, had managed to scrupulously avoid speaking to his parents any more than was strictly necessary, and had come home just as soon as his departure wouldn't be seen as a slight.

But the thought that something had been missing nagged at him. Something missing, something missing, something missing… but what could it possibly have been? His parents were nothing if not thorough in their observance of tradition. And then it hit him.

It wasn't something that had been missing. It was some_one_.

For a moment he had the mental image of a woman with dark skin, long braids, and fire in her eyes – a woman who was at once a stranger and intimately familiar – and then recognition shocked through him. He wasn't that angry sixteen year old boy anymore. He hadn't been that boy for a very long time, and that festival was the reason why. The festival that year had been when he met Aisha for the first time.

She had been wearing an old patched dress, and there had been dirt smudged on her face, but her smile was brilliant and she hadn't been particularly interested in marrying him, lord's son or not. Unlike the other ladies, who pretended not to see the rather spectacular bruise on his face that had resulted from last night's fight, Aisha had asked about it – and laughed right along with him when he told her how he got it. But the thing that had astonished him the most was her implicit understanding of him and Adam. He'd told her all about it in spite of his better judgment, and instead of telling him that he should do his duty to his family, Aisha had told him that love always finds a way. "Maybe not the way you'd expect," she had said that day, "but it always finds its way."

Less than a year later, she was acting as his squire alongside Adam, and she and he were betrothed. Because Aisha had done what no other woman had done: she had honored his love for Adam. Aisha had promised to marry him and bear as many children as he needed, so long as he allowed her to follow her own path in turn. And she would never ask that he give Adam up or turn away from who he really was.

She had completely changed his life, and that festival had been the start of it all.

Anger rose up inside him at the thought of having to relive his life without Aisha in it.

"What's the point of showing me this?" he asked as his bedroom melted away into mist. "I know what my life would have been like without her!"

The mist around him, which had been impenetrable at first, slowly began to dissipate. Through the mist he could now make out the shapes of enormous trees and thick foliage, and he wondered where in the world he had ended up.

A shape loomed out of the mist, the shape of an enormous ape. Rocky took a step back and reached instinctively for a sword that wasn't there. He had never seen such a creature with his own eyes before, but he knew them from books and drawings, and he knew that they were incredibly strong and could be exceedingly dangerous. He had not a clue why he was being confronted with one now, but he was certain there was a reason for it.

"Ask for its help," Aisha suggested. Startled at her sudden appearance, Rocky boggled. But there she was, leaning lightly against a tree not far from the ape, as if there were nothing at all unusual about that. "That's why it's here," she went on. "You passed through the challenge, and now you can request something from your guardian spirit."

"'Sha?" he sputtered, not quite believing his eyes.

"Yes," she said, "It's really me. I passed my test, and my guardian spirit showed me how to find you so I could help you. But we don't have any more time to waste here. We still have to help Adam, Billy, and Kat, so hurry up and ask."

If it had been anyone else but Aisha, he would have been more doubtful. But since it was Aisha… he turned to the ape and said, "I've come to ask for your help."

_I know_, the ape said, and Rocky did not doubt it.

"Will you help me?" he asked. It felt like his heart was in his throat.

_You saw through the deception of your own destiny,_ the ape said, _and found the hidden path._

Rocky wasn't sure how to respond to that. The ape was right, but he had only found his way out of the deception because he remembered Aisha. He knew that the ape was implying that his was the power to find hidden solutions, but he wasn't at all sure he would be able to do such a thing when the answer wasn't as simple as remembering Aisha.

_I will lend you my power,_ the ape said. This time when it approached him, Rocky did not back away. Instead he strode forward to meet it, and accepted the pendant that it handed him. It was bronze, and set with garnets so dark a red that they seemed almost purple, and the pendant at the end of the chain was shaped like the ape.

As he clasped it around his neck, the ape said, _Take this, and remember the wisdom to look beyond what your eyes show you._

The ape faded after it spoke those last words, but Aisha remained solid and real beside Rocky. "Come on," she said. "We've got three more friends to help."

 

 

Adam woke with a start and was immediately uncertain of where he was. He didn't remember going to sleep, but supposed at some point he must have. The alternative was that he had run afoul of his usual tormentors again, and _they_ were the reason for his unconsciousness.

Shame burned through him. He knew instinctively as soon as he thought of it that he had lost yet another fight, and the ache that seemed to consume his entire body only served to confirm it. He tried to move and failed, so for the moment he contented himself with staying where he was, which was sprawled on the ground somewhere within the forest that circled the castle.

It was a small castle, but its lord had given Adam and his mother shelter after the death of Adam's father. His mother, still the Lady Park in spite of her husband's death, had told Adam many times that he should be grateful for the hospitality shown the two of them, but Adam couldn't quite be sincere in his thanks. If the lord of the castle was nothing but hospitable, his son never failed to find an opportunity to remind the newcomer of his place. And that place was squarely under his boot.

He mocked Adam for his age, his small stature, even for his Tayene mother. That was usually what it took to get Adam to fight back, because Adam didn't care nearly as much for his own health or pride as he did for his mother.

The one thing he wanted more than anything else in the world was not to disappoint his mother.

But now as he lay on the forest floor, listening to the quiet sounds of the woods and trying to ignore the pain in his body, all the doubts came flowing slowly back into his mind. _You're a failure,_ they seemed to whisper. _You'll never amount to anything. Look at you, you can't even get up. What mother would want a son like you?_

With the doubts needling him, memories crept back in.

His mother had told him a secret last night: she wanted to get married to the castle's lord. His wife had died years ago. Her own husband had been dead for nearly three years. Surely even Adam could see there was no impropriety here. And he had understood. More than that, he wanted his mother to be happy.

He just also wanted her to understand that he could never be happy in this place. More than that, he could never accept the lord's son as his brother. He would run away and live as a beggar on the streets before he would accept that demonspawn as his brother, and he'd said as much when his mother made her plans known to the rest of the castle's denizens.

That, he remembered sharply now, was what had caused the fight. He should have known better than to talk back to a bully like that, but he'd had to draw the line somewhere.

The pain made him groan in spite of himself, but he managed to roll over. He had hoped he would then be able to push himself upright, but his strength deserted him as soon as he had landed on his stomach. So for a while he just lay there and felt the softness of the earth beneath one cheek while the other throbbed with the pain of what must have been a black eye.

_Maybe I am as weak and worthless as he always says,_ Adam mused. _Maybe that's why I'm always alone, and why I'll always be alone._ He knew that thinking like that was pointless and wouldn't help, but frankly, he couldn't think of anything else right now. It was as if the dark feelings were a mire, sucking him down and down, from which he would never be free. It consumed him: he would always be weaker, he would always be an outsider, and he would always be alone.

But he wasn't alone; he realized it an instant before the two figures faded into existence beside him. He wasn't that lost and lonely little boy anymore, and he hadn't been that boy for a very long time. He'd left that place behind to foster with the DeSantos family, who had wanted a companion for their only son, and that was where he'd met Rocky and everything had changed. Because of that day, he had Rocky and Aisha now.

And though the sinister power that flowed through this spirit world immediately picked up on his old insecurities and fears regarding the two of them and their complicated relationship, his faith in them was stronger.

Gentle and protective Aisha, who reminded him so much of a mother bear, he thought now as he recognized the shape of the pendant that now rested around her neck. And Rocky was with her, as steadfast and steady-hearted as ever. They were both smiling, and he'd never felt so welcomed before in his life. Still, he couldn't quite bring himself to trust that everything was as it seemed here in the spirit world.

"Is that really you?" he asked in shock.

"You were expecting someone else?" Rocky asked with a pout. Even as he asked the question, he knelt to help Adam up.

"We're here to help," Aisha said, somewhat more helpfully.

And far from abandoning him or mocking him, Rocky and Aisha had made sure he would make it through his challenge. The thought was reassuring, but it didn't exactly give him any answers. "So this is the spirit world's challenge?" he asked aloud. "What do we do now?"

Rocky shrugged. "If it's anything like what happened to me and Aisha, you'll have to see through some deception and then you'll be able to talk with your spirit's guardian animal. Whatever that might be."

Aisha looked around, vigilant as she investigated the swampy forestland around them. Adam wondered faintly if they would be attacked, or if this was the extent of the challenge. What form would his spirit's guardian animal take?

But nothing changed. There was no sign of anything remotely resembling a guardian spirit. Adam experienced no epiphany that might show him the way out of this mess. So far as he could tell, he was just stuck. And Rocky and Aisha were stuck with him. They had meant to help, and now they were just going to get sucked into the swirling riptide of negativity and worthlessness that Adam spent most of his time trying to avoid.

He wondered if they could feel it, the lingering fear and angst. Almost immediately he knew he was being a fool. They were here. Of course they felt it.

Rocky hadn't let go of Adam after helping him up. He leaned fractionally closer now. "Adam," he said in a low tone, "you should have told me it was this bad."

"It's not," he protested. "Usually. Not with you and Aisha around, anyway."

Rocky's doubtful look said that they would discuss this later, but for now he let the matter drop and Adam tried to do the same. Focusing on his insecurities was unlikely to help them get out of this mess.

He didn't realize how silent the forest had become until a loud noise shattered the quiet. Adam couldn't quite place the sound, loud and wet and odd as it sounded, but Aisha's lips curved into a slight smile. She nodded her head slightly and he knew she saw something he didn't. He approached, following her line of sight until he could see what she saw.

It was a frog. An enormous frog, easily twenty times the size of any he had seen before, and bearing a telltale green obsidian pendant around its neck that marked it as a spirit guardian. Pendant or no pendant, Adam still didn't want to believe that this could be his spirit's guardian animal. A frog? At least Rocky and Aisha's animal spirits, the ape and the bear, had redeemable, even valuable traits. Apes were well-known, even this far from their customary habitats, for their cleverness. And bears were renowned for their protectiveness. But frogs?

Frogs were merely nuisances. Unless you were a young boy trying to gross out a girl.

Adam groaned in spite of himself. "A frog?"

"I don't advise questioning it," Aisha cautioned. "At least, not about the form it has chosen to take." For some reason it seemed to Adam that this was the voice of experience talking; he made a mental note to ask Aisha about it later. If there ever was a later.

"Though I do recommend asking it if it will help you," Aisha went on.

He felt ridiculous speaking to a gigantic frog, but he left his friends behind and crouched down so he was more on the creature's level. For a long time he struggled to find words that wouldn't make him feel any more foolish than he already did. Then, "I get the feeling that you know why I'm here. Will you help me?"

The frog croaked again, loud enough to rattle Adam's bones. Then it stared at him with large, unsympathetic eyes.

He was certain it was going to deny him. _It doesn't matter,_ he realized. _We'll find another way._

It seemed almost that the frog smiled. _Young one, you certainly know how to choose remarkable companions._

Astonished, he realized that the voice could have come from nothing else but the frog. There was simply nothing else around that might have spoken. "I," he stammered. "I guess I do."

Behind him, he could suddenly sense the power that radiated from his two friends. It was intense, burning hot and potent, and it grew stronger between the two of them. How had he not noticed it before?

_Yours is the gift of teamwork, of knowing when to rely on your own strength,_ the frog went on, _and when to trust your friends. Unlike others, you do not blindly rush to your death when another way can be found._ Adam had a feeling he knew who the frog was talking about.

"That's why I'm here. I want to help them, I want to do what I can to make sure they survive this," he explained. Even as the words passed his lips, he knew that the frog spirit already knew all of this.

_And that is why I will help you,_ the frog told him. _Take this pendant as a symbol of my protection, and know that my power will be with you in the spirit world and after you return to the mortal realm._

"I…" he was genuinely speechless for a moment. When he had seen that his guardian spirit took the form of a frog, he'd felt ashamed and hopeless all over again – compared to the noble creatures that represented his friends – but now he was touched by what it had revealed about him. And now he wanted to do right by the spirit and the power it had so graciously lent him.

He took the pendant gently from around the frog's neck and placed it round his own. While he was doing this, the frog faded into nothingness and the forest itself began to disappear. He stood and turned to face his friends, feeling the frog's power flow into him and mingle with his friends' power.

"Ready?" Rocky asked.

Adam nodded. "Still," he murmured, grimacing, though there was no real shame in it now. "A frog? What does that say about me?"

"I know a story where if you kiss a frog, you get a handsome prince," Aisha quipped.

"Very funny," Adam muttered. But as he followed her and Rocky into the mist in search of their friends, his heart felt somehow lighter.

 

 

Billy awoke with a start wondering where he was and why his head hurt so very much. In the gloom it took him a moment to realize that he was in the royal archives of Castle Phaedos and that he must have fallen asleep at his desk. He sat up groggily, painfully aware that the scattered parchments had left their mark on his visage when he abruptly succumbed to slumber. He rubbed absently at his cheek and tried to recall what he had been doing that had been so urgent as to make him go without sleep for so long.

And then it hit him with all the force of a knight's tourney charge: he had been trying to find the solution to a magical conundrum with which his sovereign was struggling. As master of the royal archives, it fell to Billy to locate the resources that she would require… only the requisite materials seemed always to just escape his searching.

As awareness deepened, he remembered just why he had pushed himself to his limits in the search for answers: his friends' lives depended upon Kimberly having the answer to this most urgent question. The exact details of the question escaped him, skittering around his mind like the insects that sometimes found their way into the archives, despite his best efforts at eliminating them, but he knew that it involved defeating Ivan Ooze to save the friends that he had captured.

Billy was certain that somewhere within the royal archives he would find information about how Ooze had been vanquished before. He was equally certain, though nothing in the archives had even hinted at such a feat, that Ooze _had _been vanquished before. And somewhere, there would be a record of how this had been accomplished. Or so he hoped.

At the same time, he knew that Kimberly needed her answer as quickly as possible. Ignoring his body's aching need for food and water, he returned to the moldy scrolls and dusty, ancient books that littered his desk. It quickly became apparent that the volumes that had seemed so promising earlier were not suitable to his needs.

With a groan, he roused himself from the desk. It felt as if he had been sitting there for years; his joints and muscles were loathe to lift him out of the seat. Making his way into the rows of shelves containing the archives' materials was a titanic struggle. Because it was the only thing he could do, so it had become what he _must_ do.

He was no fighter to ride into battle on his Queen's behalf, and he was no mage to smite the evil sorcerer himself, but this he could do, at least in theory. If only he could find the correct volume, the answer would be within reach…

As he made his way along one enormous, dark shelf filled with arcane materials, Billy stumbled. He would have fallen if he had not grabbed onto one of the shelves and managed to hang on as his legs gave out.

"No," he muttered, knowing that no one was around to hear how hoarse his voice was. "Got to keep going…" But his words only wasted precious energy, and did little to propel his body onward. It occurred to him that maybe the answer wasn't in the archives, after all.

He knew he must be hallucinating when he pushed himself back to his feet, staggered a few more steps, and came face to face with a snarling wolf. There was no conceivable way for such a creature to have ended up so deep within the castle's archives, but there it was. He blinked at it in confusion, certain that the answer he sought must be within the archive somewhere, if he could just get past this latest obstacle.

A gentle hand rested on his shoulder and a familiar voice murmured, "Come on, Billy. You already know this answer."

"Aisha?"

"Mhmm," she agreed. "Rocky and Adam, too. We're here with you."

Her words directly contradicted what he knew to be the truth – that Aisha, Rocky, and Adam had gone to battle with Kimberly and Tommy – and yet he could not deny that she seemed real enough. As he glanced over his shoulder he could almost make out the shapes of Rocky and Adam standing with her in the shadows.

"You've got this, Billy," Rocky told him.

He was quite sure that he did not, in fact, have a handle on the situation… but he trusted Rocky and Aisha implicitly. If they were telling him that there was a solution to be found, then there must be a solution.

He looked back to the wolf and realized that it wasn't snarling at him. If anything, it almost seemed to be laughing. It sat back on its haunches, its mouth opened wide as it panted, its tongue lolling out as it watched him.

"You are from the spirit world," he observed.

The wolf stood up again, its tail wagging happily. For the first time he noticed the pendant hanging round its neck, all sapphire and silver. Someone had to have placed the collar on the wolf, therefore this could be no ordinary animal. "I am in need of your assistance," he tried, and this elicited another positive reaction from the wolf, which trotted over to him and butted its head against his hand.

"See?" Rocky said. "I told you."

Billy barely heard him. Instead, he thought he heard the wolf say, _I will lend you my power… _before it stood up on its hind legs, resting its forelegs on his shoulders and meeting his gaze with startlingly gold eyes. _Take my pendant, and remember the determination to find the answer, no matter what._

Surprised, Billy answered, "I will."

He unclasped the pendant and placed it around his own neck. His friends were all smiling at him as the archives and the wolf faded into white. "That just leaves Katherine," he observed.

 

 

Katherine awoke, not in her tent, but in a room with thick stone walls. She knew this small and gloomy room almost immediately, though she did not understand how she had come to be there. She felt groggy and confused, her memories all jumbled up in her head. This was impossible, she knew, and yet there it was right in front of her. She reached out and touched the stone and knew it was real.

For a while she sat in the storage room of the royal archives and tried to sort through her memories. It made no sense for her to be here. Not when she was almost certain she had been chosen to accompany the King and Queen to Phaedos. In fact, it had been months since she had seen this place, she was sure of it. And yet here she was.

_Ha!_ She all but heard the rasping, angry voice in her head. _As if they would have taken the likes of you on such an important journey._

The voice sent a chill down Kat's spine. The room that had seemed close and cozy when she first woke up now seemed ready to stifle her. "Is someone there?" she asked, her voice betraying her fear. She already knew the answer, and yet she had to ask.

No one answered, because there was no one there.

Suddenly afraid, Katherine tried the door. It wouldn't budge. She pushed as hard as she could, but the door simply would not move.

_Whatever trick this is, _she thought, _I have to get out of it. I have to get back to Billy and the others. They're counting on me._

She thought she heard someone laughing and whirled to see, but there was no one there. "This isn't funny," she murmured.

The laughter continued. Kat shuddered. A moment later, she felt it: the tendrils of magic slipping into her mind, whispering seductive promises of power and rewards as it took control of her body and left her a helpless spectator to her own actions.

_No!_ she thought. Her mouth would not form the word. Instead she felt herself smirk and reach for the door. This time, she knew it would open when she tried it.

_No, _she thought again. _You already forced me to do too much damage. Too much knowledge has already been lost because of me! I won't obey you anymore!_

But she was helpless against the magic. Her hand closed over the door handle once more.

Too late she realized that the protective charm Dulcea had given her was gone. Panic washed over her. Dulcea's words, spoken so very long ago, but vividly remembered, echoed in her mind: _yours is a rare gift – but to you it might seem more like a curse – for you are particularly susceptible to magic. This happens but seldom among humans, and in the old days such gifted people were carefully trained and protected, so that others could not freely take advantage of them... but these things have fallen out of the common knowledge along with much of the old magic lore, and few know them now. Rita Repulsa is one such who remembers the old ways. She sought through all of Kimberly's lands for one like you when she first set her eyes on the Princess, and she found you, and she used you, though it was cruel and unfair._

Later, Dulcea had given her the necklace, explaining, _this is a charm such as would have been crafted for you at birth in the old days. It will protect you, helping to strengthen your defenses against most kinds of magical control. I cannot undo what has been done… but Rita Repulsa will never control you again, so long as this charm rests about your neck._

She had always taken great care to make sure that the charm remained around her neck, exactly as Dulcea had instructed. But now somehow it had gone missing while she slept, and now she was trapped under Rita's magical control again. Her first thought was that even Dulcea had abandoned her now, because of her foolishness and all the damage she had caused, and her shame only grew more intense at the thought.

_I'm not strong enough,_ she thought.

"I'm not strong enough," she said aloud. Her heart felt frozen in her chest; she had been so sure there was nothing to be done but to wait for the inevitable… and yet she had just spoken. Could she reassert control over her body? She knew that sooner or later, without Dulcea's protection, she would again become a weapon used to harm her friends. But she didn't have to blindly accept that fate. She could fight it.

It took an enormous effort, but her hand pulled away from the door handle.

The echoing laughter ceased.

"You're wrong," she said aloud to the apparition of Rita Repulsa that had suddenly appeared before her. "None of this is my fault. You may have used me to capture Zordon and to destroy the books about magic and to hurt Kimberly and Tommy, but you can't control me anymore. I have Dulcea to help me. And Tommy and Billy, and even… even Kimberly, who could have chosen to hate me instead. My friends won't let me fall!"

The snarling wraith of Rita Repulsa abruptly vanished, and Kat found herself no longer in the familiar storage room, but in a deep stone pit. The ground beneath her feet fell away and she only just managed to grab onto a protruding stone set into the wall before she could have fallen to her death.

"This just keeps getting worse," she murmured, clinging to the stone for dear life. "What am I supposed to do now?"

As if in response to her question, she heard a fluttering of wings from behind her. Half expecting an attack at any moment, she didn't dare to look for the source of the sound. She could almost hear Rita laughing again. "You can't stop me anymore," she whispered into the stone. "You can make me fall, but you can't make me hate myself anymore."

The words were no sooner spoken than the pit around her vanished into mist and she tumbled down and down – until Billy snatched her out of midair. He looked every bit as startled to find her suddenly in his arms as she was to find herself there. For a moment Kat knew he couldn't be any more real than Rita had been, but somehow he felt more solid than Rita had. He smiled and set her down on her own two feet, and she realized he wasn't alone. Aisha, Rocky, and Adam were with him.

Behind her, once more, she heard the fluttering of wings, but this time the sound did not fill her heart with dread. She turned and found herself face to face with a tall, graceful bird. "A crane?" she asked, and had to look again: the bird wore Dulcea's charm around its neck. There could be no mistaking the charmed necklace, gaudy and crusted as it was with semiprecious stones. Only now it bore an additional charm, a pink pendant in the shape of a crane.

"Kat," Billy began, but Katherine could already guess what the crane's presence meant.

"I need your help," she murmured. The bird's head tilted slightly, as if it knew she was speaking to it. "I am going to need that charm you're wearing," she went on, feeling a little silly talking to a bird.

She thought she heard someone say, _I will lend you my power. _The crane stepped gingerly closer and allowed her to slip the necklace over its head. It tingled against her fingers in a way that Dulcea's charm had never done, but she clasped it around her own neck anyway.

"Thank you," she said.

The crane did not answer, but faded into away until all that remained within the white fog were Kat and her friends. She clung to Aisha and Billy's hands, hoping that this seemingly endless white was not merely another test. They remained lost in the whiteness for what seemed like a very long time, and then, slowly, a room began to form around them.

It was a room very much like the one beneath the castle Phaedos through which they had initially entered the spirit world, but Kat knew that it wasn't the same room, in spite of its similar appearance. Instead of a gate to the spirit world, this room had an enormous hearth at its center and was illuminated by the fire's warm glow. And instead of Dulcea standing before them, they were faced with a man, or at least a man-like creature. The truth of his identity was masked by strange blue armor that covered him from head to toe.

"You each are here because you have awakened guardians of the spirit world," the man said calmly, as if everything that had just happened were perfectly normal. In the spirit world, maybe it was. "Your presence here is safeguarded by those spirit guardians. Without their protection, you would be dead."

Kat looked uncertainly to her friends. She had no idea what to say to this person, or what to make of his words.

"Who are you?" Rocky demanded.

"And what do you want with us?" Aisha added.

Rocky and Adam had already put themselves between this strange man and their friends, though Kat wondered how much good they really thought they could do. This man was a denizen of the spirit world. If he wanted to destroy them, he would destroy them, and there was nothing they could do about it.

"I am Ninjor," the man said by way of introduction. The name meant nothing to any of the companions, but that did not seem to bother him. "I guard this section of the spirit world." His powerful gaze turned to Aisha, "And I want nothing to do with any of you. It was you who came here, not I who summoned you."

"Dulcea sent us here to the spirit world," Billy explained.

"Ah, Dulcea," Ninjor said, sounding exasperated and almost fond at the same time. "She means well, but she knows much less than she thinks she does. Did she tell you that you might survive this place?"

"She told us that we might find the power we needed if we came here," Aisha admitted. "She made no promises of survival, but we decided it was worth the risk."

"Now that _is_ interesting. Tell me, mortals, what it is that you deemed worth the risk of venturing forth into the spirit world."

In fits and starts, they told him all that had befallen them since they set out with Jason in search of the Sword of Power. For his part, Ninjor listened in silence, only occasionally asking for clarification. He seemed only mildly surprised when they told him of Zedd's demise, and that Jason had claimed the Sword of Power and had now embarked on a suicidal mission to destroy Ivan Ooze on his own.

"We want to help," Rocky concluded. "The people that Ooze has captured, they're our friends, too."

"And more than that," Adam added. "We understand the threat he poses to humankind. If we can help end that threat, then we'll do whatever it takes."

Ninjor mulled this over for several long minutes, until Kat began to wonder if he would ever say anything again or just leave them in suspense forever. But this was the spirit world, she reminded herself, not the mortal world she was so accustomed to. Things probably worked a great deal differently here.

"The power you seek does exist in this place," Ninjor explained at last, his voice somber. "Here it is known as the power of Ninjetti, and it may be claimed by any being that is worthy. In times long past, the gift of Ninjetti was given to chosen beings – both mortal and spirit – in order to safeguard the dual worlds. But it has not been seen in the mortal world in at least an age." Kat understood the implication: no mortal had been deemed worthy in a thousand years or better. She fought against the sinking sensation in her heart. The spirit guardians had accepted them and offered power and protection. That had to mean something, right?

Before she realized what she was doing, Kat blurted all of her thoughts out for everyone to hear. "Haven't we proven our worth?" she asked, remembering how hard it had been to overcome her fear during her challenge. "Can't you give us the power, knowing what's at stake?"

"I cannot give you the power you seek," Ninjor said bluntly. Katherine felt as if all her hopes had been crushed by his words. Oblivious to the crestfallen expressions on the humans' faces, Ninjor went on, "You are already in possession of that power, and have been since you gained the favor of your guardian spirits. What I can show you is how to use it to accomplish your aims."

Kat looked to Billy, unsure how to respond to this, but Billy's expression was one of exhilaration. After all, they were seeing things that no human being in memory had seen, learning the secrets of the spirit world that no other human might ever see again. She had to smile, herself, seeing him so excited about what was about to occur. "Teach us," she asked quietly.

"Better keep the lesson short," Rocky murmured. "Time's getting kind of short."

Aisha shook her head gently. "Time passes differently here than… back home. We'll have as much time as we need. But at what cost?"

"Can you really give us the means to defeat Ivan Ooze?" Adam asked, ignoring his two companions. "We'd been told that only the Sword of Power was capable of such a thing…"

Ninjor finally deigned to answer one of their questions. "And where do you think the secret for defeating Ivan Ooze was first discovered? The Sword of Power was forged in fire from the spirit world."

Rocky was the first one to understand. "Are you saying that we can harness the same power as the Sword, ourselves?"

Kat couldn't see past the helmet he wore, but somehow she knew Ninjor was smiling.


	44. Together

Hrag said little as he flew ever south and westward with Jason on his back. Truth be told, Jason preferred it that way. Things had been happening so fast lately that it felt like he'd had no time to think about anything. He'd had little choice but to act and hope for the best. It felt like he had only just defeated Lord Zedd, and now…

Now he had the revived Phaedans telling him they wanted him to be their new emperor, by which they meant they wanted him to be a figurehead doing whatever he was told. He had a magic blade with unrivalled power at his disposal. And his closest friends were in terrible danger, which was entirely his fault. One quest just over, another already begun, and he'd barely had time to breathe.

Dulcea would be furious, he knew. And Kimberly and Tommy likely wouldn't be far behind her, but he just couldn't bring himself to involve them in this if he didn't have to. He was the one that had insisted Zack and Trini head for Taye instead of coming to Phaedos with the rest of them. He was the one that had ignored the all-too-convenient appearance of Trini's fellow countryman, and the message from her parents that in hindsight should have been suspect from the moment Sunan Lin produced it.

Guilt plagued him. This was possibly the biggest mistake he had made in his entire life, and now Zack and Trini were going to pay the price. _This was my doing,_ he thought unhappily. _It should be me as Ivan Ooze's prisoner, not them._

But wishes could not change the past. Only his actions now could possibly hope to set things right.

He was conscious, as he always was now, of the Sword at his side. The Sword of Power… the fabled key to defeating Ivan Ooze once and for all. He could hardly believe it was real, much less that it was now his to bear. This blade was a thing that only existed on the frayed edges of legends in his homeland, something he hadn't believed could be real until he'd held its scabbard in his hands.

It didn't look like much; even his old practice swords back home had been more ornate in design. But it radiated power, a strange sensation that he could feel constantly, even when he was not in direct contact with it. And it only grew stronger when he unsheathed the blade, flaring wildly like a flame in a strong wind. He wondered what it would feel like to actually wield it in battle, and wasn't sure he truly wanted to know.

He'd wielded it in the dream Hrag had showed him, of course, so he knew many of the things it could do and much of how it felt to bear such a weapon in his hand and use it against his enemies, but that had been the faded memory of his ancestor. It hadn't been real. Nothing had been at stake, because everything he'd seen in the dream had already happened a thousand years ago. He'd been forced to merely repeat Aiden Drake's mistakes, rather than making any choices for himself. _It wasn't real,_ he thought for what must have been the hundredth time, and tried not to remember how real it had felt when Aiden lost control of the Sword's power and died amid the flames.

But he did remember, and he wondered, too. He wondered whether things had changed much from the dream. In the dream, he'd lost the battle. He'd died in excrutiating agony. Zedd and Ivan Ooze had won… Although now that he thought about it, they'd been fighting each other more than the human Phaedans. It was the Sword of Power that the humans had created, hoping to defend themselves, that had drawn the attention of the warring sorcerers in the first place.

And yet in acknowledging that, he knew that something had changed from the time of Aiden Drake and Bryndis Hart. It seemed to Jason now that what was done was done, but as long as the Sword existed, people like Zedd and Ooze would always vie for it even if they could never use it themselves.

The best thing to do, it seemed to him, would be to get rid of the Sword once and for all.

_Could I destroy the Sword?_ he wondered. _If I had the chance… could I even bring myself to destroy it? What if we need it again someday?_

It might be the only weapon in the world that could actually harm Ivan Ooze, and yet… What he'd said to Hrag earlier, the one thing that had actually convinced the dragon to help him… _If I destroy the Sword, will the end of the world still have to happen like Hrag says it will? Will everything end in darkness, forever?_

But the question that haunted him the most was: _If I destroy the Sword, will I still be able to save Zack and Trini?_

He looked down, at the land flying past far below. Can _I destroy the Sword? _He truly did not know if it were even possible. All he knew was that the men who had originally created the Sword had meant for it to be both unstoppable and indestructible, a weapon that they could use against their immortal enemies for the rest of time. Whether they had succeeded in their plan, he did not know.

He supposed that he would find out soon enough. But first he would somehow have to face Ivan Ooze and live. Only when Zack and Trini were safe could he truly consider destroying the Sword.

He hadn't really thought about that when he made up his mind to rescue his friends. Then, his ony thought had been to save them no matter the cost. Now he was beginning to think that surviving the battle might also be something he wanted to do. And he hadn't a clue how to do it.

He'd had perhaps two or three hours to consider all of this when Hrag banked sharply to the right, circling back the way they had come. Jason was about to ask about the sudden change in direction when he saw the reason for it himself. Something was chasing them.

Hrag slowed, rumbling ominously as he prepared to meet the first Jason thought it must be some trick of Ivan Ooze's, but the large white shape in the sky soon revealed itself to be another dragon. Its scales shimmered like ice, and it was approaching so quickly that he barely had time to realize it was Erë, Tommy's ally the ice dragon, before it was upon them. And Erë did not appear to be in a good mood.

She swooped down on them from above like a falcon striking its prey. Hrag seethed and twisted, meeting her claws with his own and very nearly tossing Jason from his back in the process. He clung for dear life as the two dragons wrestled in midair. "Hrag!" he shouted, and, "Erë!" But the two dragons either did not hear or did not care. They were too busy clawing and snapping at each other like enormous serpents, their long necks coiling and surging, each using their powerful jaws and gigantic teeth in an attempt to rend life from the other.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, but the frigid wind whipped his words uselessly away.

This was definitely not how he had expected his journey to end, thrown from a dragon's back to fall to his death far below. Suddenly Erë released Hrag and whipped back up into the sky above, preparing to drop onto them again for another attack, and Jason caught sight of two figures on her back. Even with the distance and amid the chaos of battle, he recognized them.

That Tommy and Kimberly would have betrayed him was unthinkable, bordering on ridiculous. And yet there they were, their dragon ready to destroy Hrag and Jason with him.

_You presume much, ice dragon,_ Hrag said suddenly, his voice a pounding rumble in Jason's mind. _These lands fall under my dominion, not yours._

Rather than plunging toward them again, Erë remained still above them, her beating wings and lashing tail the only movement. _I was summoned. I was asked to catch you,_ she replied, seeming overly pleased with herself. _And catch you I have. Now at last our ancient feud will be ended!_

Hrag evaded as she plummeted toward them; Erë's strike missed by mere feet.

A pink light exploded in the sky above them. Both of the dragons turned to look. The expenditure of magic was so strong even Jason knew it for what it was. He looked not to the light, but to its source, hardly believing that such power had come from Kimberly Hart. He had known her his entire life, and had never guessed the true depth of her power. Her mother had never seemed to have that kind of power, so where had it come from?

Add that to the growing list of things he planned to ask Dulcea about one day soon.

"Enough!" Kimberly shouted, and the wind did not whirl her words away the way it had Jason's. In fact, her voice reached him as if it were somehow amplified. More magic? "Erë, we didn't want you to fight Hrag! We just needed you to catch up with him." Even at this distance, she could spear Jason with a glance. "We aren't going to let you do this alone, you know, so you may as well stop fighting and let us help you."

For a moment he thought to protest, like he could actually find some way to send them back to Phaedos. And then he realized that they could help him, and they probably wouldn't even have to get anywhere near Ivan Ooze to do it.

"Fine," he shouted back. "You two find Zack for me. I'm almost positive he's not with Trini and Ivan Ooze anymore, but we can't just abandon him because Ooze is the bigger threat." Trying to find one man in the wilderness should keep them busy for a while. Long enough for him to track down and take care of Ivan Ooze, he hoped.

"Oh, you are just _determined_ to be difficult about this, aren't you?" Kimberly retorted. Suddenly he wasn't so sure that surviving Ooze would be the problem. Surviving Kimberly's wrath might turn out to be the more difficult thing.

_And why should I give aid to this mortal man and this fire dragon?_ Erë demanded. The word "fire" was uttered with complete disdain.

"Because the fate of the whole world might be at stake!" Kimberly shouted in complete exasperation. "If you and Hrag can't set aside your differences long enough to help us, Ivan Ooze is only going to get stronger. And if that happens, there may not be a way to stop him."

_I am no man's servant, to hunt his quarry at his convenience,_ Erë said, her tone haughty. That haughtiness was starting to grate on Jason's nerves; he felt that he and Hrag were wasting far too much time here arguing with a dragon who shouldn't have been involved in the first place.

"Do what you want!" Jason said. Kimberly's look grew more lethal. "I never asked for your help, Erë, and I never asked Kim and Tommy to summon you, either. I'm just trying to get my friends back. If that means I have to put an end to Ivan Ooze, then that's what I intend to do, and I'll do it with or without your help." Watching Erë as she listened to his words, Jason realized he knew exactly how to get her to help. All he had to do was use her pride to his advantage. "But do you truly want it said when the battle is won that Hrag the fire dragon helped more than Erë of the ice?"

For the first time, Erë seemed to realize what was at stake… at least as far as her own pride was concerned. If the dragon had seemed angry before, she was livid now. _I am the greatest of dragons!_ she thundered. _I will not be outdone by the likes of him!_

"Then help me," Jason suggested, "even if it means starting by finding Zack."

Once again Erë was skeptical._ Starting?_ she huffed, as if she now intended to destroy Ivan Ooze herself and had no need whatsoever of Jason and his Sword of Power.

_Enough of this foolishness,_ Hrag cut in. _She will help, or she will not, as she has always done. That is the way of Erë._

"If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather hear it from her," Jason replied dryly. "Erë, we're going to need your power, too, if we are going to have any hope of defeating Ivan Ooze."

The ice dragon looked down her nose at him. _Attacking this sorcerer constitutes a great risk to myself,_ she pointed out.

"I understand that," Jason began, his mind racing as he tried to think of another way to convince her. "And that's why all I ask is-"

_I will deliver your companions, _Erë decided, _and then we will see if I will help in your fight, or if I will not._

Hrag made a huffing sound, as if to indicate his displeasure with this declaration, or his certainty that in the end Erë would be of no help. Erë ignored him, so Jason did, too. Right now he needed Erë's cooperation even more than he needed Hrag's. "Then you'll find Zack for me?" he asked.

_It is a simple task for one such as me,_ the dragon allowed. _I will do this thing… and perhaps more._

"This is _not_ over," Kimberly shouted as Erë turned to depart. Jason knew that she meant every word, but as Erë's great wings carried her away, and the two humans with her, there was very little that Kimberly could do right now to carry out her threat. Erë headed south, as Hrag had been heading, but veered off slightly farther to the west; Jason wondered if she knew something he didn't.

_You are not the wisest of humans,_ Hrag quipped angrily as the ice dragon shrank into the distance. _Only a fool would make bargains with the ice._

"And what about making bargains with fire?" Jason asked mildly. "It seems to me I'd just be asking to be burned if I did something stupid like that…"

Hrag said nothing more, but turned back to his southern trajectory. They flew on again in silence for a long time. Far away ahead the sky grew darker and darker, thick with thunderclouds and pierced by sudden bolts of lightning. Jason felt only grim satisfaction as Hrag flew straight into the storm.

 

 

As the sky grew lighter in the east, the wind began to howl less fiercely and the snow fell more slowly. It would have given Zack hope, if he had any strength left in him for hope. He had survived the fall from the castle battlements as Trini had promised, but that had been the last of his luck.

He had landed in the moat, a bit of river that had long ago been directed to surround the castle, and had let the current help him along for hours. He'd reached the main body of the river and chosen to follow it. The weather had been mild then, but not cold enough for the water to pose any immediate danger to him, and floating had seemed easier than walking at that point. And then all at once, winter had come over the land. The air had grown chilly, then cold, and then the first flakes of snow had begun to fall and he'd been forced to abandon the river. That had been at least a day or two ago, and the snow had not stopped since. He'd traded his magical armor for magical furs, but even those were soaked through by now and he'd learned the hard way that the magic failed if he tried to sleep or lost consciousness.

He was no longer sure how long he'd been stumbling through the wilderness. In his exhaustion everything was beginning to blur together. He couldn't risk a fire even if he had been able to find dry tinder, because he had no doubt Ivan Ooze would be looking for him, but he knew he would have to sleep soon. And when that happened, he would never wake again and Trini's sacrifice would have been for nothing. So he regarded the dawn with tired, angry eyes and wondered if it would be his last.

He kept walking anyway, thinking he might find some place to take shelter, where he could at least get out of the wind and rest a while in relative warmth. He'd given up hope of ever being able to feel his hands and feet again. But though he walked for hours and the dawn grew into day, he never did find the shelter he sought.

He found something better.

At first he thought he must be hearing things, because he heard someone call his name. _Angela_, he thought forlornly, and wondered if she would miss him when he never returned.

But he heard the call again a moment later and realized he'd been wrong. It wasn't Angela calling for him, it was Kimberly Hart.

A shadow slid over him, huge and dragon-shaped, and he heard Tommy's voice on the wind, too. And then he heard very little beyond the rush of snow and wind as the great ice dragon Erë alighted not a hundred feet away from him. Zack stared, bewildered, as Kimberly launched herself off the dragon's back and ran to him, stumbling through snow well past her knees. He did not truly believe she was there until she reached him and threw her arms around him.

She was warm as a summer day, laughing and crying at the same time. "I'm so glad we found you!"

For a while he just held her, too grateful for words at this chance to see a friendly face again. Tommy made his way over more slowly, concern written plainly on his face. Zack wondered how bad he must look to earn a look like that. As bad as he felt, maybe.

Finally, Kimberly released him. "We know what happened," she explained. He frowned. That could only mean... "Dulcea saw it in the scrying pool."

That explained how they had found him, at least. Still, he had to warn them. "Trini's in trouble."

"We know," Tommy assured him. "And we know who has her."

Zack shook his head. "Whatever you saw in that scrying pool, Ivan Ooze is a hundred times worse. You can't try and fight him. He can do things you can't even imagine."

Kimberly smiled a grim smile. "What makes you think I can't? I've learned a few things recently, myself."

"And besides," Tommy said lightly. "He's got Trini. We can't just let Jason get all the glory for saving her."

"Where is Jason, anyway?" Zack finally thought to ask.

"Probably all the way to Ooze's castle by now," Tommy said. "Turns out I'm not the only one with a dragon on my side these days."

Zack had no response for that. He should have known that no matter how dire the situation, somehow Jason would find a way, but this almost defied belief.

Helpfully, Kimberly told him, "He woke the fire dragon Hrag when he claimed the Sword of Power."

So Jason had succeeded in his quest. That was something. Only it wasn't something good. It couldn't be something good. Just like that, Zack understood why Ivan Ooze had sent men to steal Trini away. There wasn't much that could have convinced Jason to come all this way with a weapon that powerful... but friendship and love could. And all Ivan had to do now was kill Jason, and the Sword would be his. "We have to stop him."

"What?" his friends chorused.

"Ivan means to kill him. Ivan _will_ kill him. And this guy isn't like Rita, he's ruthless and unbelievably powerful."

"We know," Kimberly said. "That's why we need you to help us fight."

The last thing that Zack wanted to do now was go back to that castle. But they were right. Ooze still had Trini. Even if they managed to rescue Trini and somehow make a clean escape, he would still be out there. Jason would see that, and he would want to put an end to it, to make sure the world was a safe place. With the Sword of Power, he just might be able to do it. But Zack had a feeling he would need all the help he could get to have even a prayer of succeeding.

"I'd love to help you out," Zack said weakly, "but I don't remember the last time I ate or slept." He did not say, _I'm not sure I can fight at all._

"Erë," Tommy said, turning to the dragon, "can you help?"

It was amazing how such an enormous creature could seem to vanish into the snowy landscape. Until now the dragon had remained aloof, but now she approached, lowering her head to get a closer look at the humans.

_This one is close to death,_ the dragon observed, her voice rumbling in Zack's head. _And he lacks the dragon dagger. What will I, Erë, Guardian of the Skies and Queen of the High Mountaintops, gain from saving this mortal life?_

Kimberly and Tommy shared a panicked look; Zack felt only resignation. Had they truly thought the dragon would solve all their problems? Life was only so simple in stories.

"Erë, we need him," Kimberly protested.

"You know what we're facing," Tommy added. Zack wondered when they had started finishing each other's sentences.

_I am aware, _Erë said mildly. Or at least as mildly as a gigantic dragon speaking directly into his mind could sound. _But this is not a risk I would undertake lightly. As I have explained, Ivan Ooze poses a threat even to dragons such as me. By helping you in this way, I will draw his attention to myself._

Suddenly Zack felt lucky that he'd survived at all, and he knew he couldn't just leave his friends to face Ivan Ooze alone, even if it would mean all of their deaths. "Erë," he found himself saying, "You don't have to fight. But I choose to."

_A bold sentiment,_ the dragon observed, _but foolish. You will only hasten your demise._

"The way I see it, I'm dead either way. I can't make it out of here alone with all the snow and ice. If my fate is sealed either way, then I'd rather go down with an axe in my hand, doing what I can to rescue my friends and keep the world safe."

_Foolish, but noble, too._ He almost thought Erë was smiling, but with her big, draconic face it was hard to tell. _Very well. Come, mortal. Stand before me so that I may get a better look at you._

He fell for it, but realized almost immediately that Erë was not really interested in getting a better look at him. Instead, she stood up to her full height as he came toward her. For a horrifying moment she looked down on him in all her terrible glory, and then she lowered her head and breathed an icy blast over him.

When the ice had passed, Zack realized that he hadn't just been frozen solid. If anything, Erë's power had augmented the power in his ring. He felt revitalized, and somehow freer than he had moments before.

"Zack," Kimberly breathed appreciatively. Seeing the confusion written plainly on his face, she added, "Look at your armor."

He hadn't consciously made the shift from warm furs to armor, but he was indeed clad once more in his enchanted armor and his axe was again at his side. The armor and weapon were still as black as the onyx that created them, but this time they were tinged with silver around the edges, the only visible proof of Erë's influence.

_My power has bolstered your own, _the dragon said. _From this day forward, you will stand beside Tommy as my champion. Go forth and lay waste to my enemies!_

 

 

Trini had been surprised to discover that Ooze did not much care where she wandered in the castle while he busied himself with other schemes, but she had quickly discovered that the price of this freedom was her humanity. Ivan Ooze had said it would take three days for the Changing spell to take its full – and permanent – effect, and now Trini was acutely aware of each moment that passed. With each hour, her hopes of thwarting Ooze faded more thoroughly.

She could all but feel her free will fading as Ooze's control asserted itself more and more strongly. It felt almost as if her true self were being slowly pushed aside in favor of the monster Ooze had made of her. She wondered: by the end of the third day, would Trini still exist? Or would she be replaced completely by a villainous, monstrous woman like Scorpina? Would she, like Scorpina, take a new name and spend the rest of her days serving the forces of evil?

She would rather die than become such a heinous creature, but even now Ooze's command was strong enough to keep her from attempting to escape, at least while he still had a use for her. Since she could not seem to do anything productive, she bided her time by exploring her newfound inhumanity. She found that she could see as well in the dark as in the light, and that all her feelings of hunger, thirst, and fatigue had disappeared with the Change. If they would ever return, she did not know.

She had not thought that she would miss hunger or exhaustion, but she did. They at least had been reminders, however painful, that she was human. Without them, she could not hope to deny what she now was: a weapon that Ooze intended to use to destroy Jason. For whether she succeeded in slaying him or not, she had no doubt that it would destroy Jason to fight her in earnest. He had a hard enough time just defending himself from her during their sparring sessions.

Her only real hope was that he might somehow manage not to recognize her through all the changes magic had wrought, but if she were completely honest with herself, even now she knew that Ooze would be sure to tell him the truth. After all, that was the easiest way to ensure his own victory. And by his own gleeful admission, Ooze liked to seek the simplest path to his ends. He wouldn't dirty his own hands unless he absolutely had to.

She had been given no orders, and no weapons or armor, though Ooze himself had said he planned to make her help him kill Jason. But since that moment had not yet come and Ooze seemed to have no immediate use for her, she spent her time skulking gloomily about the castle and trying to puzzle out his strategy. She was unarmed and unarmored. Was he going to pit her in combat against Jason, and only reveal the truth when she lay dying? Or would he reveal her from the first moment, and then force her to kill the man she held most dear?

Neither of these options pleased her much. _Could Jason kill me to save his own life?_ she wondered. _If I can't be returned to how I was before, maybe it would be better that way._

She supposed sourly that she ought to get used to slinking about in shadowy places now that Ooze's magic had taken hold in her. Fortunately, the castle promised lots of hiding places for one such as her. The interior was dark and damp and gloomy, and the rooms rearranged themselves occasionally according to Ooze's whim, so exploration never ceased to turn up new rooms and passages, though these were always empty. The castle itself sprawled across an enormous expanse of land, though there were very few windows through which she could glimpse the world outside. When she did find a vantage point, she saw only the ruins of the courtyard or, through gaps left by collapsed sections of the outer wall, untold miles of wetland stretching off toward looming mountains.

Soon after she awoke and began her wanderings, it began to snow. She watched the large flakes drift down from the heavens with a sense of idle curiosity. Occasional glances through the castle's slit-windows told her it kept on snowing and snowing until the wetlands were buried beneath a thick white blanket. If the temperature matched the weather, Trini did not feel the chill. _Another perk of being a monster,_ she thought.

For a brief while, she entertained thoughts of trying to escape and find Zack, or even make her way home. But she knew that hope was futile. When she even thought of leaving, her feet seemed to turn her away from the castle gates in spite of herself. And besides, she had no idea where she was. None of the landmarks glimpsed through the castle windows were remotely familiar, and she had no idea what path her captors had followed to bring her here in the first place. So how could she ever hope to make it home? But that thought did give her some hope. She had no idea where in the world she was, so maybe Ooze was wrong and Jason would not be able to find this gods-forsaken place.

For his part, Ivan Ooze seemed utterly content to let her wander where she would. For a time, that bothered her. But there was little enough she could do to hinder his plans now, she realized. The very idea made her furious. She was not prone to violence herself, in fact quite the opposite, but she was a trained warrior and she had a warrior's pride. She longed to fight back, to avenge the humanity that had been taken from her against her will, but could see no way of doing so. Not when Ooze could simply order her to stand down and her ensorcelled body would happily obey his command rather than her own heart.

The waiting and the wondering were the worst parts of her captivity. With each moment that passed, her despair grew more and more complete. She wondered what had become of Zack, if he had somehow survived the fall from the battlement and the ensuing shift in the weather. (She hoped he had, if just to spite Ooze.) She wondered where Jason and Kimberly and all of her other friends were, and how they fared in their quest. (She hoped they were all safe.) And most of all, she hoped that Ooze had lied when he said that Jason knew what had happened and would come to save her – or die trying.

As much as she longed to see him again, she didn't want it to mean his death. At first she found herself wishing fervently that he would forget about her, or at least forget the promise he had made to her. But eventually she had to admit that she knew better than to wish for the impossible. If she – or any of his friends, she insisted stubbornly, because it was easier than admitting that Ooze might have taken her because her hold on Jason was stronger than any other – was in danger, Jason would do everything he could to see her safe again and no amount of wishing would prevent him from doing just that. Whether she liked it or not, he would walk right into this trap for her.

Whether she liked it or not, he was going to die because of her.

By the second day of her transformation, these dark thoughts had brought her back around to the castle's entryway. She had wandered enough that the rest of the castle had ceased to be interesting and she no longer had much of a desire to explore. Instead she lingered in the entryway and considered escape. For the first time since her Change began, Ooze's spell did not actively prevent her from doing so.

There was a part of her that did want to escape… to put this place behind her and hope to find a cure for her transformation somewhere out there, or at least to know she would not have to face Jason like this. But the greater part of her now wanted to stay and see how things would play out here. Some small part of her still hoped for rescue rather than death or exile.

But all of thoughts raced right out of her head when the castle's gate suddenly exploded inward in an enormous gout of fire. Amidst the rushing flames, which were intense enough that Trini could feel the heat all the way across the large empty room that was the castle's main entryway, a figure in red armor raced into the chamber. Logically, she knew that there was no way she could know for sure who was wearing that armor. But she would have recognized him anywhere.

She froze, frightened that Jason wouldn't recognize her, terrified that he would.

But she was not the only one aware of his arrival. She felt more than heard Ooze's command: _STAY PUT._

_No,_ she thought, suddenly furious. The blind fury helped her block her master out of her thoughts.

But Ooze was already aware of her rebellion. _YOU WILL STAY AND FIGHT HIM._

Fighting the command every step of the way, Trini turned and fled.


	45. Eye of the Storm

The castle was enormous, larger even than the one at Phaedos, spreading like a blight over the countryside far below. As Hrag swooped lower in slow circles, Jason could see that an army was arrayed around the castle, but the dragon flew effortlessly over the masses of twisted creatures and alighted within the castle's massive, crumbling courtyard. Men, or things that looked almost like men, on the walls threw spears and fired arrows at them, but the dragon's fiery aura turned them all to ash before they could cause injury to Hrag or the man riding on his back.

_Go,_ Hrag said when Jason had dismounted and paused to look back uncertainly at the dragon. _I will take care of these._

Jason did not need to be told twice. He ran for the gate to the castle keep, not bothering to wonder how he was going to get past the thick layers of wood and steel that barred his path. From overhead, a blast of Hrag's fire did away with the gate's double doors altogether, and probably any enemy soldiers unlucky enough to be hiding behind them. Ignoring the fact that he had just nearly been cooked to death by dragonfire, Jason raced inside.

The entryway was dark and devoid of life. It was damp inside the castle, aside from the portion just inside the door that Hrag's fire had scorched, and Jason had the sudden and bizarre impression that he might be drowned at any moment. He carried on anyway. Trini was here somewhere, and he meant to find her. He had the Sword of Power that would let him destroy the evil sorcerer who had control over this castle and the lands around it, the sword that would enable him to save Trini despite the impossible odds. He was not about to back down now, nor let thoughts of failure turn him aside.

Proceeding with caution, he made his way toward the hall at the back of the entryway. That, too, was dark and empty. Or at least it seemed to be empty at first glance. Something that had been frozen in the shadows down the hall to his right suddenly sprang to life and fled at the sight of him. Intrigued, and having no better idea of which way to go, he decided to follow the creature – whatever it was. It might be leading him into a trap, but he had no other leads. Resting a hand preemptively on the hilt of his sword, he moved in the direction the creature had fled.

As soon as he laid his hand on the Sword, pain seared through his head and his perception of the world around him altered. The Sword's power rushed over him in waves, as if it were reacting to something. Instead of the strange half-glimpsed creature, which had seemed almost part human and part feline, he saw fair skin and long black hair… and a familiar face that made his heart ache.

He didn't question what the Sword had revealed to him, though nothing in Aiden Drake's experience had led him to believe it had this ability. He simply knew that what it had showed him was true.

"Trini! Wait!" he called.

But she was already gone.

She gave no sign of turning back even when he called her name, so he chased after her. Heedless of the danger, he sprinted down the hall and rounded the corner she had disappeared around, but there was no sign of her. From there, the hall split into three paths, all equally dark. Jason paused there for a moment, unsure of which direction he ought to take.

While he hesitated, there came a sound like stone grinding on stone. When he turned to look behind him, the hall that had been straight when he ran down it now angled off sharply to the left a short distance behind him. As he watched, a slab of mortared stone seemed to slide down through the ceiling to seal off the passageway altogether. Whirling, he saw another slab about to descend in front of him, and dove beneath it. It slammed into place just as he rolled free. A moment later, and he would have been trapped in the space between the walls, with no means of escape.

"Trini!" he shouted into the dimly lit passages ahead.

There was no answer.

Knowing he could not afford to wait any longer, he chose the leftmost of the three paths and ran down it. If Trini was still thinking anything like herself, this was the path she would have taken: when she was unfamiliar with her surroundings, she always took the leftmost path in order to avoid getting lost. But the way she had looked in that brief instant before the Sword's magic revealed the truth… Jason wasn't sure that Trini was still really Trini.

_Ivan Ooze,_ he thought darkly as he made his way down the passage, _you should be glad I can only kill you once._

The Sword gave a warning throb in his hand, as if it were greedy for the death of its great enemy, and Jason had to wonder what would happen to the Sword if he used it to kill Ivan Ooze. The power of the Sword had carved that crater in Phaedos without any help. What could it do in the hands of the man meant to wield it?

No sooner had he wondered about the true depths of the Sword's power when he got the chance to test it out and see for himself. The passageway's walls had grown steadily damper as he made his way past, until they glistened in a slick, purplish hue. Whatever the substance was, it had the consistency of slime more than water. It clung to the ceiling in thick drops and painted the walls a mottled violet, and it seemed almost to glow in the darkness.

He had been watching the ooze suspiciously for a few steps when it suddenly sprang toward him. It was astonishingly quick, and only an instinctive slash with the Sword kept it from grabbing hold of him. In the instant the Sword connected with the ooze, Jason felt the full force of its intent impress itself upon his mind. The ooze recoiled, seeping back into the wall where it lay docile and glowed faintly to light his way once more. He watched it go and wondered what the pulsing power he felt from the Sword meant.

The longer he held the Sword, the more aware of it he became.

It was not as easy a weapon to wield as he had hoped, even for the one supposedly destined to do so. The power within the blade constantly ebbed and surged, not just in response to the tides of whatever magic was bound within the Sword itself, but also varying depending on what was in its master's heart at that moment and what enemy he faced. It had reacted strongly to the ooze of its own accord, feeling like a bolt of lightning in his hand. And yet when he had seen Trini and failed to recognize her on his own, it had gently showed him the truth.

The path branched again a short distance ahead of him. He took the left path again, even though it was the darker and narrower of the two. The passage sealed behind him again as he passed the split. He tried not to worry too much about being trapped, since it was a moot point now, but as he made his way through this darkened tunnel, lit only by occasional globs of ooze that hung from the ceiling, he wondered why in the world Ivan Ooze was letting him get this far. It seemed obvious to him that the sorcerer must have something to do with the constantly shifting passages, but he couldn't figure out the reasoning behind letting him proceed.

Up ahead the path angled off sharply to the right, and then proceeded to zig-zag its way ever deeper into the castle. The walls were solid stone at this point, seeming more like a maze of tunnels or caves than the interior of a castle.

His every step was accompanied by the grinding sound that meant the castle was rearranging itself once again. This time the path in front of him dropped precariously to form a set of steep stairs heading down into pitch blackness. He paused for a moment to contemplate that abyss, wondering if he should go back, if he _could_ go back. Wherever Trini had gone, he did not think she had ended up here. And then suddenly, amidst the grinding of stone, he heard a loud splash and a stifled yelp from somewhere below.

He dove into the darkness without thinking. He would have recognized that voice anywhere: _Trini_.

The Sword lit the way for him, not precisely glowing, but enabling him to see in the utter blackness of the tunnel. Without it, he would have plunged headlong into the same trap in which Ooze had dropped Trini, but with the Sword's help he saw it at the last moment.

Ooze had opened a shaft in the castle, probably right underneath Trini's feet, and had dropped her into a pit at the bottom of the shaft. It was filled with more strange purple ooze, which did not glow but seemed to writhe and move on its own. Somehow Trini had managed to miss the sharpened wooden stakes that protruded haphazardly from the murky depths, but she was making no effort to swim or pull herself up. Jason practically had to throw himself in after her to reach her, but he was finally able to catch hold of the back of her ruined traveling dress and pull her, choking and sobbing out of the trap.

He feared that the ooze might try to grab him, or to pull them both back into the spikes, but it seemed content to bide its time. Or maybe it was the Sword, still gripped firmly in his free hand, which kept the ooze at bay.

Jason didn't care about that. He didn't even care that the effort it took to pull Trini out of that trap had left them both sopping wet, covered in ooze, and sprawled breathless on the floor. Heedless of any danger, he sighed with relief and was content to just hold her. All that mattered right then was that she was still alive and they were together again.

As the initial disbelief faded, he sat up, shifting to cradle her more comfortably against him. "Shh, it's okay," he soothed.

Instead of responding, she just hid her face against his shoulder and shook. He couldn't tell if she was shivering or crying, or both. Even with the bulk of his enchanted armor between them, he could feel how cold she was. He had a feeling it wasn't just from falling into that trap, either. Whatever spell Ooze had put on her, he was sure it had done more than just change her appearance. But for now, he didn't care about that or any of the other dangers that might be in store for them. He'd found her, just like he was sure Tommy and Kim had found Zack by now, and that was all that really mattered. He would deal with the rest of it later.

So for a few moments, they remained like that. Jason could hardly believe that he'd really managed to find her again; it seemed like the hardest part of his quest must be over now, even though he had yet to face Ivan Ooze.

Eventually, Trini's shaking stopped, though she remained tense against him. She looked up at him shyly to ask, "Jason? Is that really you?"

He'd forgotten that she might not recognize him in his red armor, but almost as soon as he realized it, his helm disappeared of its own accord. He didn't think he would ever get used to that. "Yes, it's me," he told her, resisting the sudden urge to kiss her.

Her expression darkened with mistrust, an unfriendly look that was compounded by the bestial features that had overtaken her own. "How in the world did you find me?"

He couldn't resist a smile. "I told you I would, didn't I?"

"But… here? It's not possible. How did you get here so quickly? And… how did you know it was me?" she asked, hesitating as if she were afraid to hear his answer. "I don't look at all like I did before."

He would have liked to tell her that he would have recognized her anywhere, but without the Sword's magic… he wasn't sure. Instead he told her, "The Sword of Power showed me the truth. As soon as I touched the Sword, I knew it was you I was seeing, even if the outside didn't match the inside."

She pulled away from him. "You can't stay here," she said, suddenly insistent. "It's not safe."

He thought about pointing out that he hadn't been safe in a long time, but thought the better of it. In the end, she was right. No matter how nice it would have been to stay there together for a good, long while, they were on borrowed time. They couldn't stay here, where Ooze could find them. More importantly, he needed to get Trini to Hrag, where she would be relatively safe, and then he would see what he could do about taking down Ivan Ooze.

"Jason," Trini went on, "if Ivan Ooze finds you here… You can_not_ try to fight him. He's more powerful than anything else in the world right now, and he wants to kill you. If you think he can't because you've got that sword, you're wrong." She was babbling, her voice almost hysterical but her eyes merely sad, seeming utterly unlike the Trini he knew.

The disparity gave Jason pause. Was she really so frightened for him, or had whatever spell Ooze put on her changed more than just her appearance? Or, the more alarming possibility, was Ooze controlling her voice and speaking through her? He didn't know, and doubted if even she knew for sure.

Belatedly, he remembered Aisha's request. It seemed a lifetime ago that she had given Trini's magic ring into his keeping. He didn't know if it would be of any use now, but he felt that she ought to have it back anyway. "Here," he murmured, fumbling with the small pouch that was still tied to his belt. "Aisha thought you would need this more than she did."

Trini looked at him in confusion, but he didn't have time to explain. Something, or rather _someone _had appeared out of the darkness of the hall to stand tall and imposing, looming over them. Jason sensed, rather than saw, the intrusion. He thrust Aisha's pouch at Trini and scrambled to his feet, determined to put himself – and his sword – between her and this new threat. The Sword seemed to flare in his hand, burning and pulsing eagerly, and he knew that this thing standing before him was Ivan Ooze. As the humanish shape finished forming in front of him, the hall seemed to blaze with purple light from the ooze all around.

For the moment Jason stared in shock and tried not to be overcome. The Sword seemed to urge him to attack. Here was its ancient enemy, the reason for its creation all those hundreds of years ago. At last it had another chance to fulfill its purpose, and its magic demanded that he seize the opportunity. With some difficulty, he resisted its imperative. There was far more at stake now than just his own life and the fate of the Sword. Trini was depending on him, and so were Zack and Tommy and Kimberly, and all of his friends in Phaedos and back home. If he really thought about it, the fate of the entire world might rest on what happened next, and so he forced himself to ignore the Sword's demands and be patient.

Ivan Ooze did not move, merely watched with dark, malevolent eyes. Jason stared right back at him, watching for the slightest move. Behind him, a brilliant golden light flashed and Trini cried out in pain. It tore at his heart to hear such a sound come from her, but he knew he couldn't risk a look. It was too late now to tear his gaze away from Ooze to see what might have happened to her. If he did, he would be dead.

"And just like that, you have sealed her fate," Ooze said with a cruel grin. "Very good. I could not have done better myself."

"You can't have her," Jason said. He didn't fully understand what Ooze was getting at, but he didn't have to. It was obviously something malicious.

"Of course not," Ooze replied offhandedly. "I never meant to keep her in the first place."

The blunt response took Jason aback.

"I only needed her to get you here," Ooze went on. "And besides, she is mortal. She'll die sooner or later, no matter what gifts I give her."

"Gifts?" Jason interrupted. The inane banter was incredibly irritating… or maybe that was just the rising fury of the Sword in his hand. It was becoming hard to tell.

"I gave your friend her current form," Ivan said, as if it were a good thing. "She's an improvement over the last woman I Changed. I think you should recall that one… Scorpina was the name she chose for herself after I transformed her. I forget what it was before that… Sarra? No, that's not right…"

Jason bristled with anger at that. Scorpina had been a fearsome enemy and an evil creature, but now he had to wonder if she had once been an innocent woman like Trini, corrupted and changed against her will. That settled any doubts he might have had. There was no way he was leaving this place unless Ivan Ooze was dead and the threat he posed to the world was gone forever.

"It ends here, Ooze," he bit out.

"Oh, I'm _scared_."

"You should be." He brandished his blade. "This is the Sword of Power."

"And you are nothing but a simple-minded boy who thought to rescue the damsel from the ogre's tower," Ooze retorted, his voice sounding dangerously like a growl. Recovering his composure, he went on, "They always do this, sending their young, naïve heroes against me, so they can lament the loss of their finest warriors later."

Jason regarded him for a moment. This was all well and good, if somewhat annoying, but he was desperate to know what had caused Trini's continued silence. Was she okay? Had that golden light come from the topaz ring? Or had it had something to do with Ivan Ooze? Finally, in an effort to stall for time, he said, "The difference is that I'm not here because anyone sent me. I'm here because you kidnapped my friends. Give them back and leave the world in peace, and we don't have to fight." It was a lie, and not a very good one, but he hoped it would buy him – and Trini – some time.

"Do you think me fool enough to believe that?" Ooze snarled. "You humans are all the same. Horribly flawed creatures that always think they have what it takes to be heroes. But tell me this, Jason Lee Scott: can you promise me for the rest of eternity that your offspring will grant me the same clemency that you just offered? You're mortal. You won't live forever. What guarantee do I have that your son or his son or his son won't take up the Sword and think to slay the ogre?"

For a disgusted moment Jason wondered if Ooze meant to unman him. And then Trini stepped up beside him and said, "He may be willing to grant you mercy, but I'm not."

The fangs and claws and fur that had marred her familiar features were gone, her humanity apparently restored, and she wore shining golden-yellow armor in place of her tattered traveling clothes. In each hand she gripped a dagger. Jason stared at her, impossibly relieved to see her once more as the Trini he had always known and loved, but there was murder in Trini's eyes and she kept those eyes trained on Ivan Ooze as she spoke.

The Sword pulsed in his hand, as if in response to Trini's strong emotions.

"You kidnapped me," she went on, oblivious to the way Jason was staring at her. She was so seldom riled that it still surprised him to see her angry even when she had every reason to be. "You took me away from my friends, you lied about my family! And then you tried to take away my humanity and use me against –" She cut herself off, flustered; Ooze smirked.

"Still can't say what's truly in your heart?" The smirk grew wider. Turning to Jason, he asked, "Are you sure she's worth all this trouble?"

Nothing he could have said would have made Jason angrier than that question. Maybe if he'd still been separated from her, the obvious attempt at distraction might have worked. But with Trini at his side once more, he didn't particularly care whether she loved him and couldn't bring herself to say it yet, or if she would never return his feelings. She was more precious than anything in the world to him. And while he would do whatever it took to see her safe again, he knew that this brewing battle wasn't about Trini, not really. She was the catalyst, but only because Ooze had kidnapped her and tried to use her for his own ends.

But Kimberly's magic had freed her from this trap and as far as Jason was concerned, that was where her part in this ended. Any moment now, he would find himself locked in combat with the most powerful living sorcerer, but it wouldn't be over Trini. It would be to determine the fate of the world. And none of Ooze's transparent ploys was going to stop Jason from doing what was necessary.

All of this flashed through his head in the instant Ivan Ooze asked his question. And the moment the last word was out of the odious sorcerer's mouth, Jason struck. He almost landed the killing blow right then and there, but he missed severing Ooze's head by mere inches. Ooze flailed backward, one of Trini's daggers protruding from between his eyes and his throat gaping open where Jason had slashed it.

The Sword felt like blinding fury in his hand; Trini and Ooze were both speaking, but he couldn't hear either of them past the rush of the Sword's bloodlust. _Destroy him! _the Sword demanded, its voice loud and angry in his mind. _Destroy him. Destroy him. Destroy him. _In undertones, the same voice added, _Destroy him, and no one will stand in your way ever again. With my power in your hand, no one will ever threaten Trini again. Your rule will be absolute and unquestioned and eternal. All you have to do is kill him and the entire world can be yours._

On some level, Jason recognized this as dangerous, but he did not have time to think about it now.

Ooze pulled the dagger from his face and his wounds sealed shut as if he were truly made of the ooze he was named for. The puncture wound from the magic dagger healed without a trace, but there was a scar across his neck where the Sword of Power had cut into him. He made no attempt to counterattack. Instead, his expression grew first confused and then furious. At first Jason thought it must be because they had actually managed to harm him, and that they had done it so quickly and so easily, but Ooze quickly made it clear that that wasn't the case.

"What in all the hells have you fools _done_?" he demanded suddenly, though neither Jason nor Trini had the slightest idea what he was talking about. He disappeared into ooze without another word and seeped away through the walls before his opponents could make a move.

 

 

Dulcea stood vigil deep below the castle Phaedos, watching over her five charges. On the outside, to those without magic, it seemed as if they were only sleeping. But Dulcea was profoundly aware of the pulsing of the lines of power and the energy that seeped from the spirit world to intertwine with the energies of the five humans. She watched them, and felt a twinge of regret. After this, none of them would be truly human again. If they survived, they would all bear the mark of the spirit world for the rest of their lives.

The blue lines of power that traced their pattern across and around the room gave one last pulse and faded slowly back into oblivion. And one by one, the humans opened their eyes and awoke.

To the naked eye they appeared unchanged. Dulcea knew better. The spirit world was in her blood – so to speak – and its magics had always been her specialty more than anything else, except perhaps the wards that Zordon had so painstakingly taught her many mortal lifetimes ago. Thanks to her knowledge of the spirit magic, she could see the subtle changes wrought in the five companions. They had been impressive, inspiring humans before their quest into the spirit world, but now they had been honed somehow, like a blade before battle.

Their eyes were keen, sharp and alert, and as they got to their feet and turned to her.

"Welcome back," she said, her voice as neutral as possible.

Rocky stepped forward, still the group's apparent leader. "We survived the challenges of the spirit world and obtained the Ninjetti power," he told her. "But what Ninjor couldn't tell us was how to use it in this world. But that's something he said you could teach us."

Dulcea nodded, trying to hide her pride at the fact that all five of her chosen warriors had survived their ordeal. "Every sorcerer or sorceress has his or her own magical specialty," she explained. "And this is mine. What Ninjor gave you, I can teach you to use here in the mortal world."

And that was exactly what she did. With magic, she reached out and touched each of their minds in turn, showing them, mind-to-mind, how to turn the spirit world magic into armor and weapons. It was not wholly different from what Kimberly's bespelled gems could do, though the power's source was vastly different. The feel of the magic against the mind was also far removed from the magic that Kimberly wielded; she hoped they could sense that as she handed her knowledge over to them.

"I regret that I do not have the luxury of time in which to actually teach you all that I know," she murmured when she had finished with the last of the transfer. "But your friends will need your help sooner rather than later, and so I have imprinted the knowledge directly into your minds." She had expected the revelation to unnerve them, as such knowledge-transfer was invasive and far more difficult to grasp than learned knowledge, but they seemed even more eager than she to be on their way.

"Does any of this include a way to get to Kimberly and the others?" Aisha asked. "Because this whole power thing is great, but it's not going to do anyone much good if we're stuck here in Phaedos – or taking the long way around."

"Ninjor didn't exactly give us dragons or anything while we were in the spirit world," Rocky quipped.

Dulcea considered giving them the answer, but her gaze shifted to Billy. His eyes were closed, and he was obviously deep in concentration, no doubt mentally cataloging all of the new knowledge that was now at his disposal. Suddenly his eyes opened and he smiled faintly. "Yes," he breathed. "There is a way, faster even than dragon travel."

The others looked to him, rather than Dulcea for the answer they sought. Dulcea smiled faintly. _Zordon,_ she wondered, _would you be proud of me for this? I have done my best to make them unreliant upon me…_

While Billy explained his understanding of the Ninjetti power, and its ability to transport its wielder through space nearly instantaneously through a method known as teleportation – the real reason that the heroes from the very earliest human myths and legends could seem to be in more than one place at the same time across many tales – Dulcea stared with sadness at the dull quartz crystal that still hung around Billy's neck.

She could feel the residual energy of the spirit world clinging to that crystal, temporarily recharging it and strengthening Zordon, but she knew that her mentor did not have much time left. _Perhaps when this battle is over,_ she thought tiredly, _I can ask Billy to help me find a solution for you, my old friend. Just hang on that long for me, please…_

"But can we just do this teleportation thing without knowing where we're going?" Katherine was asking.

"As I understand it, we can teleport to any place we choose – or to any person we choose," Billy said.

"That is not quite correct," Dulcea interjected. "You must know _where_ you are going, but there are ways of discovering this by knowing _who_ is in that location."

"A scrying spell," Kat guessed.

"Exactly. Search for your friends and you will not only see them, you will see where they are. And then you will know where to teleport."

"You say that like you aren't going with us," Adam observed.

"That is because I am not going with you."

All five of them looked at her now as one, seeming shocked and horrified to find out that she would not accompany them on their journey. "This fight is not mine to fight."

Aisha, in particular, was clearly dissatisfied with this explanation. "What kind of excuse is that?" she demanded.

"The only one I am going to give you," Dulcea said mildly. She knew that Zordon disapproved of telling mortals too much of the fates decreed for them by the powerful forces that moved the world and all its creatures, but sometimes she still chafed at the necessity. After all those years under Zedd's curse, with her tongue bound against her will, she wanted nothing more now than to speak plainly.

_Would the things I could tell you alter your decision to go forward?_ she asked silently. And then she told them as much as she dared. "If I go south with you, if I set one foot upon the land of Ivan Ooze, I will begin to fade from this world. I cannot go much further south than I have ventured with you on this journey or the trap will be sprung… and I have no way of knowing exactly where it is set."

"A curse of undoing," Billy murmured.

"Lord Zedd wasn't the only one that cursed me in the days of your ancestors."

"Will the curse be destroyed with Ivan Ooze, like the one from Zedd?"

Dulcea tried not to grimace. She herself had wondered much the same thing many times over the years. "I do not know," she admitted. "And in the interest of self-preservation, I am reluctant to find out."

"Why did you never tell us about this before?" Adam asked. Unlike the others, he sounded less accusing and more concerned.

"I will answer your questions when you have returned," she told him. "But right now, your friends need you more than you need to know why I keep my secrets so closely. Go to them. Help them win this war at long last. And in the meantime, I will keep the Phaedans from any mischief they might have in mind."

With Billy's help, she walked them through the scrying spell so that they could get enough of a lock on their friends' location to teleport. And then without any help from her at all, all five of them phased fearlessly into light and vanished.

 

 

Outside and far above Ivan Ooze's castle, Erë descended into the empty courtyard with Kimberly, Tommy, and Zack on her back. Baring her fangs against unseen foes, the ice dragon lowered her great neck so that the humans could safely make the jump to the ground.

"This is the place?" Kimberly asked. She wondered where Jason and Hrag were, if not here, but at first glance there was no obvious sign of man or dragon.

_It is,_ Erë confirmed. _This is the place where evil dwells._

It didn't look like much to Kimberly, just a bunch of crumbling walls. And a massive ruined keep with a hole scorched into it where the door had once been, the only telltale sign that Jason and Hrag had been here already. On the outside it seemed like nothing more than an old abandoned castle. But when Kimberly reached out with her magic, she could feel the clash between two opposing forces: Jason's Sword of Power and something dark and sinister that must have been Ivan Ooze.

"There's nothing here," Zack commented. "Are we too late?"

"I can feel them," Kimberly murmured. "Jason's still here, and Ivan Ooze, too. But they're deep underground. I don't know where Hrag is." Surprisingly, underneath the sheer power that she sensed from the Sword and from Ooze, she sensed the familiar, but faint, touch of her own magic. It couldn't have been anything but Trini's topaz ring.

Zack looked clearly puzzled by this new ability, but Tommy did not question her judgment and Zack knew better than to ask questions now. The courtyard might be empty now, but they could be facing a fight at any moment. There would be time for questions later, when the battle was won. And somehow Kimberly instinctively knew she would have a lot to answer for by the time this battle was over.

"Come on," Tommy said, starting toward the keep. "If they're underground…" He trailed off, but Kimberly's mind had already leaped ahead: then there must be a way down somewhere within that sprawling, ruined keep. She looked at the entryway, the scorching and the destruction, and hesitated. Almost too late, she became aware of a tendril of magic rising up through the ground, probing. She threw up a hasty shield around herself and her companions, but it was too late: whoever had sent that probe knew they were there.

"We've been spotted," she warned. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, dark, purplish liquid began to ooze up through the gaps in the courtyard's paving stones. Even at first glance, it was obviously no ordinary liquid. It seemed to have a mind of its own, taking on strange shapes and generally ignoring gravity and logic in its oozing movements. The shapes it took on were vaguely manlike, but monstrous – Kimberly was reminded unpleasantly of the monsters created by Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd.

It wasn't long before the thick ooze and the creatures, still forming in their multitudes, had backed the three warriors up against Erë's bulk. The dragon was big enough to occupy much of the yard, which did not leave much room for the humans and their enemies. Kimberly didn't know what the ooze was or what the monsters made from it could do, but she sincerely hoped that her magic – or Erë's – could protect them from it.

In the ruined doorway, the ooze rose up and took on the shape of a man. It grew gradually more lifelike until it suddenly seemed to breathe, inhaling sharply. The strange man opened his eyes and shouted, "Erë!" His expression was a mixture of pure malice and frightening glee. "Welcome back to my humble abode!"

The dragon recoiled as if she had been struck, then snarled.

"It's been a long time," Ivan Ooze went on. "I didn't think you'd have the guts to show up again."

If she had not seen it with her own eyes, Kimberly would not have thought Erë could look frightened. But the dragon was clearly wary of Ivan Ooze.

_Do not trifle with dragons, Ivan Ooze_, Erë cautioned. _You may think yourself strong, but your power cannot truly compare with mine._

"Spare me the speech, Erë," Ooze replied. "We've been over this before. I already know what you're going to say, and you already know what I'm going to say. But we both remember the thrashing I gave you the last time you showed your sorry face here."

Erë rose up on her hind legs, standing to her full height, her tail lashing furiously, and looked down upon Ivan Ooze in all her haughtiness. Kimberly thought the dragon would say something particularly biting, but Erë was silent. An instant later her enormous head snapped down and she breathed the full force of her icy breath right at Ivan Ooze.

He may have spoken derisively of the dragon's power, but Erë's magic, the same magic that had purified Tommy and freed him from Rita's clutches, that had breathed new life into Zack, froze Ivan Ooze solid.

_I have bought you some time,_ the dragon said. _No more can I do without great risk to myself._ And that, of course, Erë was not willing to do. Not that Kimberly could exactly blame her.

Tommy ducked away from a blow aimed at his head by one of Ooze's minions. Kimberly had not realized until that very moment that the ooze monsters were not just in motion, they were attacking. "Thank you, Erë!" he shouted to her. "You've already done more than anyone would have expected you to do. We can take it from here!"

Hearing his words, so bravely spoken, Kimberly took heart. She hoped he was right, and that they would be victorious in this battle as they had been before. _We didn't take down Rita and Zedd to lose here,_ she thought, but a deeply seated sense of foreboding lingered. This battle would be anything but easy.

The ice around Ivan Ooze was already beginning to crack and melt; Erë launched herself into the air. Wind strong enough to send Kimberly tumbling to the ground rushed through the courtyard as the dragon's enormous wings carried her skyward and away from danger. A part of Kimberly longed for safety and wished she could follow Erë away… but the better part of her knew that it was destiny that had led her here, alongside her husband and her oldest friends, to battle the greatest evil their world had ever known.

When the wind finally died down, Tommy was there to help her up. By the time Kimberly was back on her feet, her magic bow was in her hand and a quiver full of enchanted arrows had appeared at her side. She took her place with Zack to one side and Tommy on the other, fully aware of the precariousness of their situation. There were only the three of them, against the full strength of Ooze's summoned army. Even with her magic to protect them, and Erë's blessing besides, the odds were not good.

It could all end here… but Kimberly had faith in spite of the odds. She still felt the presence of Jason and Trini somewhere deep below, and as long as they were alive she was determined to believe that they could win this fight.

But Ooze seemed determined to put that faith to the test. He was still breaking free of Erë's icy trap when the trio of humans began to engage with his army, but it was slower going than Kimberly had expected. The ooze monsters just wouldn't seem to die, no matter what she tried. Or rather, they would not _stay_ dead when her arrows felled them.

Zack and Tommy had better luck, accounting for more than a handful apiece, while Kimberly was left staring in horror at a score of monsters that now bristled with shining pink arrows. Each one should have been dead or dying, and yet they simply picked themselves back up and kept coming. Panic swept over her as Zack and Tommy moved to intervene, to put sword and axe and armor between her and Ooze. Kimberly feared for the worst, her heart in her throat, and yet the creatures dealt a death-blow by the white sword and silver axe stayed down. Unfortunately, for each monster they killed, two more rose up out of the ground.

The true problem was that Tommy was still recovering from the injuries Zedd had dealt him. Even Kimberly could see that the fight was already wearing him down and slowing his usually lightning-quick movements. He couldn't keep this up forever. And Zack was faring only a little better. She knew full well that the only thing keeping him on his feet and fighting now was Erë's magic.

As they retreated further and further, until finally the crumbling outer wall was at Kimberly's back and they could retreat no more, Kimberly struggled to contain her rising panic. Despite Dulcea's warnings and the dragons' cautions, it had not truly occurred to her that they might lose this fight – that they might all die here.

_My destiny did not bring me here to die,_ she thought, but mere thoughts could not pull the twisted half-life from her enemies. _There has to be something we're missing,_ she realized, unwilling to accept the possibility that there simply was no way to defeat Ooze's minions without the Sword of Power – or a dragon's blessing. No one could be _that_ powerful. Not even Ivan Ooze. Wracking her brain for a solution, she remembered that Bryndis Hart and her warriors had been able to destroy Ooze's soldiers… but she did not know how they had managed it. No matter how much she learned, it seemed, it was never enough.

And just when she thought the situation couldn't possibly get any worse, five spears of colored light coalesced in the sky above and lanced straight down toward Kimberly and her defenders.


	46. Hope Extinguished

Plunged into complete darkness, Trini wasn't quite sure what had just happened. One moment Jason had been trying to put an end to Ivan Ooze once and for all, and the next Ooze was simply gone – oozing out through the cracks between the stones as if he'd never been remotely man-shaped. In the absence of the purple ooze and her Change-augmented eyesight, the hallway was so dark and oppressive that she could not even hope to see Jason standing right next to her.

She let out the angry breath she had been holding and realized she was shivering. She was _cold_. Once more, she felt the persistent tug of exhaustion and hunger. And more than that, she felt anger. But perhaps best of all were the things she no longer felt: the push from Ooze's unspoken commands, first to dissuade Jason from his chosen course of action by any means necessary and then to kill him or die trying. _Convince him to give up, as only you can do, and then kill him anyway when he is most vulnerable._

Remembering the losing fight against Ooze's orders – irresistible words whispered directly, seductively into her mind – only made her shivering worse. She'd given it everything she had, every ounce of willpower she possessed, and in a few minutes more she would have lost the fight anyway. It didn't seem like it could be over so quickly, just like that. But it was. And it felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Slowly, it dawned on her that the ring she now bore again was doing more than simply blocking Ooze out of her head. Bit by bit, its magic was restoring her to the way she had been before, healing the changes that Ooze's spell had wrought. She felt almost human again, and suspected that if she were to remove her gloves she would see human hands instead of fur and claws. The thought made her want to weep with joy. Somehow, Jason had done the impossible and arrived in time to save her. Though what he'd really done, she realized, was simply bring her the means to save herself.

But right now, Jason's ominous silence worried her. "Jase," she began, hesitating. Her voice sounded rough and awkward in the utter silence, like she'd screamed her throat raw. Then again, in her confrontation with Ooze, she had been shouting, at least at the end.

The sound of her voice, however awful it sounded to her, snapped Jason out of his stupor. She heard rather than saw him sheathe his sword. "Are you okay?" he asked finally.

She reached for his hand, somehow managed to find it in spite of the darkness, and squeezed. "I am now." She paused for a moment, wondering if she ought to explain what had happened to her since the last time she saw him, or even just in the moments after she put the topaz ring back on, but in the end she knew that conversation would have to wait. If they didn't stop Ivan Ooze soon, it wouldn't matter. They would be dead. And so would all of their friends.

So instead of explaining, she asked, "How do you think we get out of here?"

In this topsy-turvy, ever-changing castle, she hoped they could escape at all. For all she knew, they were sealed down here forever and all Ooze had to do to win was to never come back.

For the first time in her life, she found herself confronting a profound sense of claustrophobia that bordered on panic. She'd always found close spaces cozy and comforting before. Now it felt like the darkness was pressing in on her, ready to crush her.

She fought against the rising tide of fear. Even with her ring's power and Jason there to protect her, the fear threatened to swallow her whole. Jason gave her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "I wish I had a torch," he muttered.

By the magic granted him by Kimberly's ruby ring, a blood-red torch appeared instantaneously in his free hand. Jason looked at it in surprise, as if he'd already forgotten what the magic rings could do, but Trini couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from him.

He was both terrifying and beautiful in the softly flickering red light. His presence here was simultaneously the culmination of her darkest fears and the most comforting thing in the world.

She smiled faintly, hope somehow winning out over fear. _I do love you,_ she thought, _I hope you know that. I was just foolish enough to think that if I didn't say it, Ooze wouldn't realize how much you mean to me._

Jason glanced at her and smiled brilliantly. "It's good to see you're, well, _you_ again," he said.

She was even more glad than he was to be back to normal. For a moment she considered telling him that, and opted for showing him how glad she was instead.

Using her free hand to tug his head down, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Suddenly afraid of what his response might be, she pulled away before he could react. Her cheeks flushed. She felt giddy and ridiculous at the same time for having done such a thing, and at a time like this… but what did she have to lose? They might both die yet.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, staring determinedly down at the ground. "It's just… I thought I'd never get to do that again, and this might be my last chance."

For a long time Jason said nothing. Finally, curiosity drove her to risk a glimpse at him. Her gaze darted up from the floor, but a glimpse was all she got when the torch suddenly disappeared and plunged them into darkness. Fear gripped her for a moment – had Ooze returned? But then Jason's hands cupped her face, the soft leather of his gloves warm against her face, and right then and there he kissed her so soundly that she very nearly forgot about Ivan Ooze altogether.

 

 

The five bars of brilliantly colored light streaked out of the sky and slammed into the ground hard enough that Kimberly felt the vibration where she stood some distance away. The last thing she had expected was for Ooze to launch an attack on them from the air in addition to sending his minions after them. She momentarily hoped that her first instinct was wrong and that this was a sign of one or both of the dragons returning to help, but as the lights faded and took on new forms, she quickly realized her mistake.

The new arrivals were far too small. And far too colorful.

And too human.

Each of the new arrivals, all five of them, was at least human in size and shape, and was clad from head to toe in armor of a different color: red, black, blue, pink, and yellow…

Kimberly almost cried out with sheer joy when she realized what those colors must mean. She didn't have to see past the armor to know that these were the rest of her friends and companions, come to give whatever help they could. She didn't know how they had managed it, but she wasn't about to question her good fortune. Especially not when it became immediately apparent that her friends were armed with weapons that not only hurt Ooze's minions, they disintegrated them.

While the others set about laying waste to Ooze's army, Billy and Katherine – in blue and pink, respectively, and recognizable as they drew near – ran to where Kimberly and her two protectors were positioned.

"Your regular magic isn't going to have an effect on Ivan Ooze or his minions," Kat said breathlessly.

"Try like this," Billy added.

Kimberly could feel the magic surrounding them, and it surprised her, because neither of them had shown the slightest inclination toward magic before. The magic that clung around them now felt very different from her own. Her magic was free-flowing and organic, almost chaotic, crafted by her whim or as the need arose rather than bound with spells. This magic, by comparison, was firmly structured and almost rigid, and it felt sharp as shards of glass when she tried to wrap her mind around it. It was alien to her, and she struggled to replicate it in the magical structure of her armor and weapons.

Zack took to the new style of magic much more quickly than she did, easily shifting his armor and weapons to have the same effect on Ooze's minions as those of her other defenders, augmenting Erë's blessing to devastating effect. Kimberly cursed her lack of real magical training as she struggled to keep up. She was still trying to get a handle on it when a particularly mean-looking minion loomed up in front of her. Katherine's crossbow, which had seemed completely mundane to Kimberly but must have been magically created, put a bolt through the beast's neck, and it fell lifeless to the ground and disintegrated into purple dust.

As much as she hated to admit it, Kimberly suddenly understood why her magic wasn't having much effect on Ooze or his minions: her magic was too similar to his. He knew how to counter anything she could throw at him, and those countermeasures were built into each and every magical creature that he set against her and her friends. The only way to defeat them would be to change the very way she approached and used her magic, and she wasn't at all sure she could do that.

"Kimberly," Tommy shouted as another one of Ooze's creatures threatened her. He put his sword through it, ending its pathetic existence, but two more sprang up to take its place. "Hurry up!"

Across the courtyard, Ivan Ooze uttered a curse as he broke fully free of Erë's trap. The power in that curse made Kimberly's skin crawl and threatened to distract her completely from what she was trying to do.

"I'm working on it!" she retorted.

She leveled an arrow at one of Ooze's minions and let it fly, feeling the magic inside it prick her fingers like so many thorns, and this time when the arrow struck home the creature fell at her feet, nothing more than a pile of vaguely crystalline dust. At the same time, something within her mind seemed almost to fall into place. She became instantly aware of depths of power even she had not suspected, all simply awaiting her slowly growing knowledge and her command. It spiraled not just through her physical body, but through all of the people her power had ever touched, through the weapons they wielded and the earth they stood upon. But more than that, it reached into the earth beneath her feet and up into the sky above her… she almost had the sense that this power transcended the mortal world, maybe even time itself.

It pulsed, beckoning, as if it knew she was aware of it at last and it had only been waiting for this moment. Well, it would have to wait a while longer, because her friends still needed her.

The battle seemed to grind to a halt around her. Frustrated by her inability to get a clear shot at Ooze, she fired arrow after arrow at the monsters that he summoned. But no matter how many she killed, Ooze simply created more. There seemed to be no end to his powers, the way there had been with Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. Kimberly had thought, when Kat and Billy showed her how to shape her magic to actually affect Ooze, that the battle would swiftly be won. But she had been wrong.

The villain's power seemed to be as depthless as her own suddenly felt, and far more difficult to control and counteract.

She could feel it everywhere around her, not just in the purple ooze that kept leaking up between the flagstones that paved the courtyard. The unnatural winter, she was beginning to realize, was Ooze's doing, too. He could control everything about this place if he so wished. It had become so tainted with his magic over the years that Kimberly wondered if his influence could ever be erased.

_Of course_, she thought, putting an arrow through yet another beast as it threatened to sneak up on Zack, _it won't matter anyway if we can't defeat him. What in the world are we going to do?_

The more pressing question, which she tried not to think about, was _where in the world is Jason?_

She knew he was nearby; she could sense his life force underneath the overwhelming power of the Sword, but she couldn't tell where he was, exactly, or why he had not joined them yet. With the Sword of Power, they might be able to reach Ooze and defeat him. Without it… she had a feeling she could be locked in this stalemate with him for a long time. Maybe even forever.

The thought startled her. Was he not trying to beat her, but to trap her?

"Damn it, Jason," she bit out. "I need your help!"

As if she had spoken the words to a spell, suddenly the castle behind Ooze shifted. She did not dare to tear her gaze away from her opponent, but she could see the brilliant glow of a shining pink line that shot straight from beneath her feet and through the castle's destroyed entrance and on into its dark depths.

A shining pink line to show her friends the way out of Ooze's trap.

 

 

When Jason finally let Trini go and rekindled his torch, she asked, "What was that for?"

It took him a moment to remember how to speak. "Because if Ooze's attention is on something else, we might as well make the most of it," he told her truthfully. She might be ready to admit that they might be almost to the end of their journey and their lives, but he wasn't.

"I'm glad I got to see you one last time," she said quietly.

"With any luck, it won't be the last," he grumbled. Nodding toward the now empty pit up ahead, he asked, "Think you can jump that?"

"I'm willing to try if you are," she decided after a moment.

He backed away so she would have enough room for a running start, at least as much of a running start as the abbreviated hall would allow. Trini sprinted the short distance and made the jump with apparent ease. When she was safely across, Jason tossed the torch to her and made his own attempt. He made it, but awkwardly, and would have toppled over backward into the trap if she hadn't been there to pull him upright again.

"Careful," she chided, and he smiled in spite of himself. He might have more brute strength than she did, but she had always been faster than him, and better when it came to jumping and climbing – and she had never let him forget it.

He had expected Trini to hand back the torch, but she kept it as they made their way down the hall together. The hall continued for some distance in a straight line, sloping slightly upward as it went, which Jason considered a good sign. Unfortunately, their luck did not hold. It wasn't long before he heard the familiar grinding of stone on stone that told him the castle was rearranging itself, but he couldn't see anything changing.

Trini was the one that noticed it: "Jase, is it just me or is this hall getting narrower and narrower?"

The hall had been frustratingly confining even when he was trying to fight Ivan Ooze, and it had only become more cramped since then. And watching the place where the wall met the floor, he could see that the walls were inching incrementally closer and closer. Jason muttered a curse. "It's not just you."

Without another word, she grabbed a hold of his hand and together they ran down the hall. As they rounded a corner and came to a steep ramp that headed upward again, Jason hoped that they weren't heading toward a dead-end somewhere. He had no desire to be crushed to death.

Jason had begun to feel truly claustrophobic when the walls stopped moving as suddenly as they had started. Perhaps a hundred feet later, just as suddenly, the hall ended at the entry to a stair that spiraled upward through a narrow shaft. One of the walls had nearly blocked the doorway, so that they had to squeeze through sideways. A few minutes later, and they would have been trapped in truth.

With nowhere else to go but up, they began to climb. The silence was nerve-wracking and Trini's torch cast eerie shadows as they spiraled upward, and Jason began to expect Ooze to jump out at them at any moment. It would have been easy to mount an ambush in the stairwell, since it was nearly impossible to see what was ahead, but although Jason braced himself for a surprise attack, it never came.

"How deep below ground do you think we were?" Trini asked breathlessly. "It seems like we have to have reached ground level by now."

Jason was inclined to agree – it felt like they had been climbing forever – but without windows or any other way of determining where they were, it was hard to say. It hadn't seemed like he had ventured down that far in his initial search, but in a castle that was constantly rearranging itself… he had to admit he hadn't a clue where they were or how they were going to get out. At this point the only thing he could think to do was to keep moving forward.

Not much further up the tower, they came to a landing. The stairs continued upward past the landing, but there was a doorway leading into yet another hallway, too. "Which way?" Jason asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Trini muttered. "This place is confusing even when its master is trying to turn you into one of his lackeys."

In the end they opted to try the hallway. At least it wasn't more stairs, though it seemed to be far above ground level, at least as far as they could tell by peering through the infrequent arrow slits.

They had been wandering through the maze-like castle for a long time, and Jason was beginning to despair of ever finding a way out, when he caught sight of something through one of the arrow slits that made it impossible to give up now. A great battle was being waged in the castle's courtyard, between a small group of warriors and Ooze's forces, apparently replenished since Jason's arrival.

"That must be why he disappeared," Trini surmised.

Though they could not see their enemy from this vantage point, Jason had to agree with her. Ooze's last words to them had made it abundantly clear that they had somehow managed to mess up his plans. He didn't want to give Trini a false sense of hope, but he was almost positive he knew who those half-glimpsed warriors fighting the losing battle in the courtyard were. It had to be Kimberly, Tommy, and, with any luck, Zack.

The Sword's power pulsed dangerously. In that pulsing there was a demand that he find Ivan Ooze – _now_ – and put an end to this. Forget Trini. Forget the fight in the courtyard. Forget everything else. It was so strong and so intensely painful that for a moment he thought his heart had stopped beating.

For the moment he was able to resist the Sword's demands, which eventually subsided to a dull throbbing ache in his chest, but he was beginning to wonder how long he would be able to control it. Thanks to Hrag, he knew – more or less – what would happen if he lost control, and hoped it wouldn't come to that. Already he suspected that losing control of the Sword would be less a matter of _if_ and more a matter of _when_.

_I'll just have to finish this before that happens, then,_ he decided. _One way or another._

Trini was staring at him with concern on her face. If she hadn't known before how dangerous the Sword was, he had a feeling she knew now. "Jason," she murmured, "what's-"

"We have to get out there," he said at last.

As if in response to his desire, the ground beneath their feet was suddenly illuminated in brilliant pink. A solid pink line snaked down the hall and disappeared down a side passage that they might otherwise have overlooked.

Trini took one look at it and took off down the hall at top speed, following where the line pointed. Jason was quick to follow suit. That pink line could mean only one thing: Kimberly.

 

 

An eternity or an instant after Kimberly inadvertently created her signal, Jason rushed out of the keep, the Sword of Power in his hand and a familiar female figure clad in shining yellow armor right behind him. Kimberly's heart soared at the sight of them. She couldn't help it: "Trini!" she called out.

But Trini was all business, and had no time for a reunion with her best friend, at least not yet. Three of Ooze's minions loomed up around her and Jason as soon as they were clear of the keep's entrance, and she immediately leaped into action, only to discover that her magical daggers had little effect on these enemies. Of course. No one had showed her how to restructure the magic in her ring yet.

Jason's sword quickly put an end to all three of the minions and he headed implacably for where Ivan Ooze was standing. For a moment, Kimberly thought she saw actual fear cross the sorcerer's face, but then it was gone.

Surprisingly, when she looked at Jason she saw none of the raw fury that Dulcea had so feared. It would seem that the sorceress, in all her wisdom, had greatly underestimated Jason Scott. Looking at him now, Kimberly could see nothing but determination on his face, determination to save his friends and end the threat Ooze posed to the entire world.

Purple ooze surged toward him and Trini, but it disappeared at a touch from the Sword. Ivan Ooze backed up a step. Kimberly watched, transfixed, until a shout from Tommy directed her attention elsewhere. Ooze's fight with Jason had not stopped his minions from attacking the rest of them. For an instant, Kimberly hesitated, wondering if she ought to help Jason… but seeing as he seemed to have the situation in hand and her husband was about to find himself trapped between two of Ooze's minions, she chose to back Tommy up instead.

_This is going to take all of us together, _she thought, surprisingly certain of her conclusion. _Just keep him busy long enough, Jase, and I'll make sure everyone else does their part._

She was absolutely, inexplicably sure it would take all of them together to defeat Ooze, but she hadn't a clue what that would really entail. Somehow, it seemed that they should be able to unite their power, and that combined power would be enough…

Her mind was still racing when she felt something tear and give way.

She was vaguely aware that all at once, every single minion in the courtyard and upon the walls collapsed back into ooze. She realized that the castle had begun to suddenly decay, and that snow was turning to slush as the temperature abruptly rose. What caught her attention was the _power_.

It roared around her, dark and terrible and no longer bound by any limitations. She turned slowly, knowing that she would see that which she most feared. And her gut feeling was right.

Jason had not given her enough time. Ivan Ooze still stood upright, but now the Sword of Power was impaled through his chest. Dark lines like cracks radiated from the wound, apparent even past Ooze's clothing. His eyes shone momentarily white, and then the dark lines began to fade, growing lighter and lighter. Jason struggled to pull the sword free and could not. Panic crossed his face. Kimberly barely noticed. Instead she realized that the rush of raw power that so drew her attention was coming out of Ooze's now lifeless body.

It was palpable in the air, in the rushing of wind and the sudden swirling of dust and ooze-rain that swept through the courtyard. With each heartbeat that passed, it grew stronger and more chaotic, and its reach grew greater.

Without Ivan Ooze to contain and control it, his power was likely to run amok…

_No,_ she realized, horrified. _Ooze is still controlling it. Only he's not trapped in that body anymore. He's _everywhere _now. _The situation wasn't quite that bad, she concluded a moment later, or they all would have been obliterated immediately, but it would be that bad soon. Someone had to do something...

Even her friends that had no magic of their own could sense that something was terribly wrong. And they all looked uncertainly to her and Jason, as if one of them would know what needed to be done.

By some inhuman effort, Jason managed to pull the Sword free before it – and he – could be absorbed by Ooze's rampaging power. He stumbled backward and would have fallen if Trini had not been there to catch him. Just looking at him it was obvious that he had nothing left to give in this fight.

And that meant it was up to Kimberly now. She knew what was wrong, but that did not mean she knew what to do about it. For a moment, she was once more the frightened young woman, unready for the responsibility of rulership, that she had been not so very long ago. And then she glanced beside her and met Tommy's gaze.

Looking into Tommy's eyes, seeing the doubt and fear in those steadfast, beloved eyes, she knew suddenly what she needed to do, what only she _could_ do. Tears slid down her cheeks, from the dust and the smoke or the sudden clarity of understanding.

Hrag had not called her a "shield" without good reason.

Tommy's expression darkened with suspicion. "Kim…"

She approached and stood on tip-toe to press a kiss to his lips. _I love you_, she thought. Aloud, she said, "Go. There's something I have to do."

"Whatever it is, we can do it together."

She shook her head. She couldn't look at him anymore. "No, Tommy, we can't."

But that only made him more determined to stay. She wondered idly if she could think up a spell to compel him to go. "Please," she said, "don't ask questions, just listen to me."

He cupped her face in his hands, turning her face up so she had to look at him. "We've been through too much for me to just leave you here," he told her. "Whatever you think you have to do, we can do it together."

"Go," she insisted. "I will be right behind you."

"Tommy," Aisha called. "If she says to go, you should listen to her. Of us all, she's the only one that can do this, and the last thing she needs right now is something else to worry about."

Tommy's gaze flicked toward Aisha and the others, but he did not release Kimberly. "Please," she said. "Go to Erë and Hrag." She could not have said how she knew the dragons were still waiting nearby, but she did. "It will be easier if I know you're safe and Ooze can't do anything to you." She had the foresight to add, "I will be right behind you, I promise."

In the instant before he let her go, Kimberly could almost see the heartbreak in his eyes. He knew she was lying, she realized. And then he let her go anyway.

As soon as he and the others were a safe distance away, Kimberly began work on what she knew would be the most difficult spell she would ever enact. First, she built a shield. With Bryndis Hart's memories fresh in her mind, it was easy – it was the same thing Bryndis had done after escaping Phaedos, to protect her people's new homeland across the sea. All those years ago, she'd created a magical shield to keep her people's enemies out, barring the likes of Ivan Ooze, Lord Zedd, and Rita Repulsa from drawing too close to her kingdom. This spell was the same in principle, only Kimberly's shield was turned inward. Her goal was to keep Ivan Ooze _in_, not out.

Reversing the direction of the spell was surprisingly simple. Once she had the basic shield constructed, she curved it in on itself into a sort of gigantic, magic-fueled bubble. It was all deceptively easy, except that now she was stuck in the middle of her own trap and she didn't know if she could get out without also releasing her enemy.

It did not surprise her that she could feel all the places that Ooze's freed spirit brushed against her shield, trying in vain to escape. "You are not going to escape me," she said with a calm she did not feel. Her heart pounded in terror. She wanted nothing more than to go _home_, to wake up and find that this journey and this battle and everything that had led her to this place had been nothing more than a dream. A terrible, awful dream. "So you may as well come and face me."

"How in all the hells did you become so powerful?" a ghostly voice demanded from nearby.

Kimberly smiled. "It was an accident. Nobody ever intended for me to have this kind of power, but here I am, the one thing you never counted on: a second person capable of forging a Sword of Power… or just using the magic on you myself." She wasn't completely sure that she could do what she was boasting of, but the thought alone ought to strike fear into him.

"You shouldn't act so smug when you haven't won yet," Ooze cautioned. "You don't know what I'm capable of now –"

"It doesn't matter what you're capable of now."

Outraged, Ooze all but spat, "I am destined to become the fifth guardian. I am the only living being with enough power! No mortal human could have the powers of concentration necessary to maintain this shield and destroy me."

"You're right," she agreed easily, because she instinctively knew it was true. It was taking near everything she had just to keep that shield up and keep Ooze from penetrating it and escaping into the wider world. "But I have one last trick."

Her magic flaring wildly and nearly breaking free of her control, she reached inward, seeking the fiery creature she had accidentally summoned in her rage all those weeks ago. She had held it trapped and hidden within her for so long that at first she wasn't sure she could even unleash it anymore. Had she held it so tightly that it had somehow become a part of her?

And then she felt it, deep inside. It had dwindled to a tiny spark, a glimmer in the darkness, and she worried for a moment that she had miscalculated. But the slightest crack in the walls of its prison roused the beast. The fire raged, swelling impossibly, brushing her consciousness aside with effortless ease. It seethed. It _burned_. And it leaped out of her body at the first chance it got.

She had no hope of controlling it this time, she knew, but she tried anyway. She grasped onto the fiery power as best she could, aware that the fire-creature had left her body behind and hauled her spirit out with it. Power poured into her from the unknown source she had merely sensed earlier. At the edge of her vision, she could still see her body, standing right where she had left it. Terrified, it was all she could do to hang on.

_I don't know what you are or how I summoned you,_ she thought, trying to focus on her determination rather than her fear. _And I don't know how I trapped you, either, but I'm sorry that it happened that way. But I can't let you just destroy everything, no matter how much you want to. I need your help._ She knew she must be delirious, thinking that she'd escaped from her body and was talking to a creature of pure fire. And yet she kept going.

_Please. I need you to help me destroy Ivan Ooze. I'll give you whatever you want, just help me do this one thing._

She did not know how she was so certain that this creature could help, much less that it _would_ help. She didn't even know if it could hear her pleas. But through its fiery eyes she could see the wraith of Ivan Ooze, who in escaping life was now trying to control death itself.

_He must be stopped!_ she insisted, and this time when she spoke the world seemed to tilt dangerously. She knew without doubt that the fire creature – a firebird, she realized deliriously at last, the ancient symbol of her family – had heard her. Exhilarated, she knew that they could do this thing, the two of them together. She, the living shield to keep him trapped, and the firebird, the weapon to end his miserable life.

Her perception of the mortal world faded into flame momentarily before flickering back into place. The disconcerting flickering continued, until she realized that through the flames she could do more than just sense Ooze's lingering presence: she could _see_ him. There was no way he could escape her wrath now.

And wrath she had in abundance.

"If you kill me in anger, you will lose yourself," Ooze warned. He truly seemed to believe that a little thing like that could stop her now.

_Then it's a good thing I'm not going to kill you,_ Kimberly thought grimly, and unleashed the firebird. It sprang free of her in a burst of flame, instantaneously annihilating the vulnerable, if bodiless and unrestricted, Ooze.

As the fire consumed him, and spread to the flammable parts of the castle and eventually to Kimberly herself, she lost her grip on not just the firebird but her own power. The shield she had created shattered into sword-sharp fragments all around her, and the very stone of the castle went up in flames.

She knew, on some level, that her body would be incinerated before she could find a way back into it. But that knowledge fell away as the firebird returned to her, as if it were nothing more than a trained falcon. She reached out to touch it – with her mind or some spirit equivalent of her hand, she was not sure – but it was already burning away into ash. _Thank you,_ she thought, but could not tell if the creature was aware of her gratitude.

For a few minutes she idly watched the destruction around her. It seemed like she ought to be frightened, but she was not. It seemed like she should be dying, but she was not. In fact, power was still rushing into her from somewhere, as if she'd broken her way into an inexhaustible reservoir of magical power. Surely not all of this could have been bottled up and hidden inside her for all these years…

The power buoyed her upward of its own accord. From above she watched the castle implode. The flames rose higher and higher, glorious in their strength and fury as her magic and the firebird's life-force spent themselves. With her power augmenting the flames, they could burn forever, destroying everything in their path, wiping this forsaken corner of the world clean for a fresh start. Ivan Ooze's taint would be purged, even if it took years.

Satisfied that her job here was done, Kimberly watched the flames for a moment longer. And then she spread her great, scaled wings – without pausing to wonder what changes were sweeping over her – and heaved her spirit skyward.

She rose on a jet of her own power, exulting in it and in the destruction of her ancestral enemy. Her dwindling attachment to the mortal world was a fleeting sensation, swept aside by the heady waves of power and the glorious new sights she was beholding. The entire world seemed to open up before her, and she realized with a vague sense of consternation that the power washing over her was rushing in from a hole she had created in the mortal world.

It hung in the air, thousands of feet above the charred remains of Ivan Ooze's castle. To mortal eyes it was invisible, but now she could see it plainly: a spinning vortex of rushing energy and magic.

She looked at it, her head cocked to one side in curiosity. This place, she realized, was a new gateway between her old world and somewhere else.

It almost seemed to beckon her onward.

Unthinking, she dove toward it and passed through the barrier.

Her consciousness brushed something infinite…

…a million thoughts crashed through her…

…a million non-thoughts rushed past…

…the entire expanse of her universe spread before her…

…and she found herself hurled back into the mortal world, her every thought and every waking memory smashed to bits by the shock of contact with that other world. She tumbled toward the earth, stripped of her short-lived ability to fly. The last thing she heard before her awareness faded completely was Erë's outraged shriek, an unearthly sound that echoed through her very soul: _It's not time yet – you have to go back!_


	47. And Embers Rise

Tommy was barely clear of the castle's outer wall when the entire structure went up in flames. He staggered even before he fully realized what was going on, his heart beating so erratically that it hurt. Fighting through the phantom pain, he turned back, though he had no idea what he thought he could possibly do. The castle was consumed by the flames; even if Kimberly was somehow still alive, there was no way he could get to her in time to save her from the same fate.

_You knew this would happen,_ he thought, horrified. _You knew, and that's why you sent me away. Damn it, Kimberly…_

His heart heaved painfully in his chest; he gasped for breath, but could not seem to get air into his lungs. Suddenly, Adam and Katherine were there, urging him back from the castle, away from the flames. Somehow they got him all the way to where the others were clustered on a small rise not far away, watching the castle burn. Tears streaked down Aisha's cheeks, reflecting the flames in shining lines. Rocky looked numb. Billy had lowered his head in silent mourning. Trini hid her face against Jason's shoulder; Jason held her like he'd never let her go again. Zack stared into the flames, contemplating.

They were all orange-tinged by the fire and despondent in what should have been their moment of victory. By the time Tommy reached them, he staggered to his knees and could go no farther even with his friends to support him. He wondered fleetingly if Kimberly had foreseen this when she came up with her last-ditch plan to destroy Ivan. Somehow, he thought not.

She'd thought to save him along with the others, he guessed, but she had been wrong about one thing: she couldn't save him and sacrifice herself. When she had brought him back from death at the hands of Lord Zedd, she had bound their lives forever. If she died, so would he.

Zack realized it about the same time Tommy did. He moved away from the others to kneel in front of Tommy. "You and Kimberly are linked somehow now, aren't you? If you're still alive, does that mean that she's…?"

Tommy wasn't sure how Zack had come to that conclusion. His mind was growing sluggish amidst the pain. He tried to speak and failed, and settled for a weak nod. He didn't know anything for sure, but his own guesses aligned pretty closely with Zack's.

"If she's still alive in there, we have to find a way to save her," Zack said more loudly, so the others would hear, but his voice had an uncharacteristic waver.

"But how?" Jason asked, tearing his gaze away from the fire. "Nothing could survive that."

Tommy sought in vain for any sign of hope in his friend's voice and found none. It was disconcerting to see Jason without hope; in Tommy's experience Jason never gave up on anything. Ever. Others might doubt or falter, but not Jason.

He looked past Zack and locked eyes with Jason. Jason looked away first. _What good is that sword of yours if it can't save Kim?_ Tommy thought, feeling irrationally angry that Jason had been able to save Trini, and that victory over Ivan Ooze had come at the cost of Kimberly's life. _We never should have come to this place._ Even as he thought it, he knew he never would have been able to dissuade Kimberly any more than Jason. She might have been spoiled and sheltered when he first met her, but she had always had the heart of a true leader, willing to do everything in her power to make sure her people were safe and secure. She and Jason would have made a formidable team, if she had lived long enough to ally her own kingdom with Jason's Phaedos.

"She's not dead," Trini said. She spoke so quietly that Tommy almost didn't hear her past the rush of his own tormented thoughts and the fierce roaring of the flames. When the others looked to her in confusion, she looked slightly embarrassed. "Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?" Billy asked.

An idea stirred in Tommy's mind as the four warriors – Kimberly's oldest and best friends – gravitated toward each other. Watching them now, he recalled that each one of them carried one of Kimberly's magic rings, a tiny spark of her true power, if what she had done moments ago was anything to judge by. But more importantly, each of those rings was a part of _Kimberly_. And each ring bearer was tied to her through that thread of magic.

Nothing else could possibly reach her, but they might.

"Call her back," he blurted out, even though he had only the slightest hunch that they could do such a thing. "Use the rings and call her back."

"Call her back from _where_?" Trini asked.

But Billy and Zack understood. Zack rose and slowly made his way over to join the other three. Billy's face was grim, his eyes wide as he took Trini's right hand, the one with the ring, in his own. A moment later, Jason and Zack added their own hands, their own rings, to the cluster. And sure enough, as soon as all four of them were linked by the contact, colors began to pulse around and through them as the rings reacted: blue, red, yellow, black.

Almost as one, the four closed their eyes. Magic guided them now, there was nothing else Tommy or any of the others could do but watch. And as he watched, the pulsing grew faster and faster until it erupted in a brilliant flare of light.

 

 

Kimberly fell back into her body with a gasp of shock. Confusion was all-consuming; she could not even tell which way was up or down, much less which path might lead her out of the flames and the crumbling castle that loomed around her. It was disintegrating, continuing to fall apart around her with each heartbeat that passed. She was covered in ash, but somehow still physically whole.

She could not organize her thoughts into words or language. There was simply _too much_ inside her now. She knew too much, had witnessed too much in that instant when she tried to enter the other world. Trying to contain all of that in a human form was _painful_.

She was no longer sure what any of it meant.

The only thing she knew for sure was that, like the firebirds of legend, she had been given a second chance to live and she needed to get out of this castle before she lost that chance, too.

Light speared upward into the sky from somewhere directly ahead of her. Light and power, she realized belatedly, two words actually forming in her mind to explain the sensations of sight and sense washing over her. The light was frightening and unfamiliar, brilliant white like a sustained lightning bolt, but the power was warm and familiar. And there, too, underneath the power, she felt the warmth of the bond she shared with Tommy.

_Tommy!_ The thought crashed through her head, pushing everything else away.

Stumbling, struggling to get her too-small-too-cramped-too-mortal body to function for her, Kimberly headed toward the light.

 

 

An instant after the explosion of light, the magic in Trini's ring gave out altogether. Her golden armor vanished and she swayed dangerously. Only Jason's arm flung hastily around her kept her on her feet. She looked up at him, her expression a mixture of delirium and exhaustion, and that settled it for him. A thought transformed his armor into sturdy clothes to ward off the lingering cold, and a long wool cloak he could wrap Trini in to keep her warm.

Billy and Zack watched with worry, suddenly afraid that they might yet lose Trini to Ooze's schemes. "We can't stay here," Jason announced. The idea of leaving before they found out what had happened to Kimberly broke his heart, but it was obvious Trini needed rest and medical attention. When push came to shove, he couldn't bear to lose both Kimberly and Trini.

"What about Kimberly?" Trini whispered. The desperation in her voice made him feel even guiltier.

He hesitated a moment longer, but that was all. "I'm not going to lose you, too," he told her.

"Jason, she is my best friend and if you tell me I have to leave here without knowing if she's alive or dead, so help me I will go back into that castle and look for her alone if I have to." Her tone was quiet but there was steel behind it. The strength of her resolve surprised him and left him momentarily speechless. She could barely stand; she would have no hope of finding Kimberly in that mess.

As it turned out, he didn't have to try to come up with a way to convince her to see things his way.

"Look!" Aisha shouted. She didn't wait for any of them to actually heed her. She'd already taken off running back toward the castle, and Rocky and Billy were right behind her. For a moment Jason was too distracted by their bizarre behavior to notice what had caused it. And then he saw it. Someone had come out of the castle. Not just someone: Kimberly.

It was hard to tell for sure at this distance, but who else could it be? It _had_ to be her.

Jason's suspicions were confirmed when moments later both Erë and Hrag descended from the heavens. Erë alighted not far from the smoldering remains of the castle, while Hrag remained floating above the ground so that one dragon was on either side of Kimberly as she staggered free of the ruined castle. Jason got the impression that the dragons had been fighting again, though neither one showed any sign of injury. Neither one looked particularly friendly right now, either.

Shortly after she was clear of the castle, Kimberly collapsed. At the same time, the burned-out remains of the castle also collapsed in on themselves, throwing dust and ash high into the sky. What remained continued to burn, though the flames at last began to die down. Aisha reached Kimberly first, going hard to her knees as she hurried to check if Kimberly was still alive.

Trini followed haltingly as Jason headed after their friends, keeping his cloak wrapped firmly around her. Together Zack and Adam were able to get Tommy back on his feet, and Katherine kept pace with them as they helped Tommy get to his wife.

"She's alive, but unconscious," Aisha declared as the others drew near. Close up, Kimberly's escape seemed even more miraculous than it had from a distance. Not only was she somehow still alive, there wasn't a scratch or a burn mark anywhere on her. "She doesn't seem seriously hurt, but… I have no idea what she did back there or what effect it might have on her."

"We have to get her to Dulcea," Tommy choked, though his condition seemed to be improving somewhat now that he knew Kimberly was in fact alive and relatively safe.

_She does not require a healer,_ Hrag said gently. _She will wake in time, when she has recovered somewhat from what happened._

Erë sat back on her haunches with a look of haughty derision, but remained silent.

Like Erë, Jason kept his distance and watched as Tommy was reunited with Kimberly. Watching them gave him a sense of calm satisfaction, and no little amusement. Who'd have thought, all those months ago, that those two would find themselves here at the end of the world? Even though his white armor was besmirched front and back with large, vaguely star-shaped black splotches where Zedd's sword had pierced it and corrupted even the dragon-forged steel, Tommy looked every bit the fairytale knight in shining white armor. And even after apparently single-handedly destroying the biggest evil in the world, Kimberly looked as if she were merely sleeping after a long day.

By comparison Jason simply felt haggard and worried about what challenges the future might hold. While Kimberly seemed almost to thrive on struggles like this, Trini seemed worn down and ready to snap under the strain. It was past time to get out of here and get everyone the rest and healing they needed.

"Is it safe to move her?" he asked the dragons.

_She will come to no further harm from being moved,_ Hrag assured them. Erë's angry silence was becoming disturbing.

"Then it's high time we got out of here," he said to his companions. "Can you five get back to Phaedos the way you got here?"

"Yes," Katherine said without hesitation, "but what about you?"

"I think I can convince Hrag to help get us back," he said. Trini glanced to him, fear in her eyes. In his urgency to get her and Zack and Kimberly to safety as quickly as possible, he'd managed to forget her dislike of heights. Back home, she'd even been reluctant to peer over the edge of the castle wall. Getting back to Phaedos on a dragon's back would be out of the question as far as she was concerned. He should have realized she would fight him on this.

"Trini," he said, determined to try and convince her anyway. "We don't have much of a choice. You and Zack and Kimberly need help."

Trini stared at him and said nothing, pleading silently for another way.

"She threw me off a castle wall because she didn't want to jump even that far," Zack quipped, attempting to break some of the tension between the two of them. "Good luck getting her up in the air on a dragon's back."

"She can come with us," Billy interjected. "I can think of no reason why the power of teleportation would disallow us from bringing her back to Phaedos that way."

Katherine looked dubious. "Are you sure, Billy?"

"The process transports our clothing and weapons with us," he explained. "I believe we can also transport other people by virtue of close contact and proper adjustment of the magical vectors."

The entire conversation threatened to go straight over Jason's head. While he had been wondering exactly how their five wayward companions had managed to make it all the way to Ooze's castle in time for the final showdown with Ooze, there really hadn't been time to ask questions or get any answers. Until now. "Wait a minute," he said. "What are you talking about?"

Billy's hasty explanation of the Ninjetti powers helped. Somewhat. Jason rubbed his head tiredly as he tried to process everything, and decided that what he really wanted right now was to go find somewhere safe and warm and sleep for about a year.

He half expected a response of some sort from the Sword of Power, but the blade seemed to have fallen into a sleep of its own. Its raging power had gone dormant sometime in the chaos of Kimberly's apparent death and return, and now it lay silent and peaceful within its scabbard at his side as if it were a mere mortal blade. Jason frowned, but decided it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie and not risk reawakening the Sword just yet.

"All right," he said at last, shaking off the exhaustion as best he could. _Just a little while longer,_ he told himself. "Let's give this teleportation thing of yours a try."

"Do you really think this will work?" Adam asked, pitching his voice so that only those standing closest to him could hear.

"In theory – yes," Billy answered grimly.

Trini offered a reassuring smile. "I trust you," she told him.

Jason watched silently as she stepped away from him and joined her hands with Billy's. A moment later, the two of them disappeared in a bolt of blue light that shot skyward almost faster than the eye could follow.

"It's okay," Katherine assured him. He realized belatedly that he'd cursed loudly in his surprise at seeing Billy and Trini disappear like that. "They're safe."

"How can you tell?"

"It's hard to explain. And I think we should get everyone else back to Phaedos before we worry about explaining too much."

Jason had to agree, and made no complaint as the rest of them paired off. Luckily, there were five with Ninjetti powers and five without, counting Billy and Trini. Relatively assured that his friends would all make it back to Phaedos safely, Jason clasped hands with Rocky and teleported for the first time in his life.

 

 

_She rose higher and higher, carried by powerful, scaled wings. She exulted in the destruction her fires had wrought. Higher and higher she flew, cavorting through the sky, unstoppable in her sheer power. And then she paused, looking up through the clear and empty blue of the sky above._

_Some instinct told her to seek out the infinite._

_She had almost reached the edge of that infinity when another power interposed itself between her and her goal. She raged against the barrier, but could not break it. It hurled her backward, just when she would have entered the breach._

It's not your time, _Erë's voice, calm and implacable, told her. _You have to go back.

Kimberly jolted back to consciousness, the dragon's words echoing in her mind again, though she was barely aware of the world around her.

Erë, she wanted to say, though her mouth would not obey her, why did you send me back?

She'd been so close she could feel it.

She could still feel it, however faintly.

For an instant she'd known _everything_, had _seen_ everything, and then Erë had thrown her back to earth. No wonder nothing made sense. No wonder her body seemed too confining, too constricting. After the freedom she'd experienced, regaining mortality was painful. She groaned and was surprised to hear that she was capable of such a thing.

Even more surprising was the realization that she was being carried by someone. She was beginning to be able to sift sensations out of the rush of her memories. She was desperate to know where she was and who was carrying her, but the moment she opened her eyes the sensations overwhelmed her and she lost consciousness again.

 

 

If he'd had time to stop and think about it, after his ill-conceived flight from Ivan Ooze's castle and his trek through the unnatural winter, Zack would have worried about coming out of the ordeal in one piece. Unfortunately, he had plenty of time to think about it after arriving in Phaedos.

He'd hardly believed it when his friends told him they'd come from the fabled land, and then he found himself standing in the castle at its very heart. But at that point, he'd been weary past the point of exhaustion and had cared about nothing so much as finding a warm and dry place to sleep for a few days. He'd barely noticed the castle around him or the incredulous looks of the people who lived there, and hadn't paid much attention to the finely appointed bedchamber he ended up in. He _had_ noticed when Rocky and Adam showed up with more food than he could have ever hoped to eat, but he hadn't heard more than a few words of the stories they told him. He was too busy eating.

And then he'd been too busy sleeping off weeks of fear.

It was only after a few days of rest, when his body began to heal and he truly began to feel like shit, that he realized how lucky he'd been to survive at all.

Too weak to leave his bed for two whole days – and nearly sick with worry over Trini and Kimberly – it began to seem like he had far too much time to think now. Not that he would trade it for the days spent trapped in the back of that wagon with Trini, or caught in Ivan Ooze's trap. But he quickly started to hate the interminable _waiting_.

He probably would have done something completely foolhardy, like dragging himself out of bed (no matter how comfortable that bed was), if it hadn't been for Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. While Jason, Billy, and even Tommy had managed to find time to visit, Zack was given to understand that they had other obligations right now. Some, like Tommy's desire to stay beside Kimberly until she was well again, he understood. Others, like whatever plot was keeping Jason and Billy busy, were mysteries to him.

But Rocky and Adam made a point of stopping by for a couple of hours each day he was stuck in bed. They kept him informed, more or less, of what their friends were up to and how things were going in Phaedos. And every day they told him a little bit more about all that he had missed during their trip to Phaedos. Sometimes Aisha joined them but more often than not she was taking turns with Katherine and keeping Trini company.

She was in worse shape than he was, but was recovering well. Or at least, that was what they assured him. And for now, Zack had little choice but to take their word for it. He would be able to visit her and see for himself soon enough, but for now he wasn't quite ready for a trek like that.

His room was an interior one, with no windows to the outside world, and he quickly lost track of time. At first it hadn't bothered him much, but he'd been spending less time sleeping lately and he was beginning to chafe at being so out of touch with the world around him. So today when Rocky and Adam took their leave of him, Zack swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

He'd thought it would be more satisfying than it was, but his legs were able to support his weight. He felt neither weak nor especially dizzy. It was beginning to feel more like he'd come down with a bad cold than anything else. All in all, he was pleased with his progress. Maybe in a day or two he would be well enough to go pay Trini a visit. The thought of seeing her again made him smile.

The smile faded as the door to his chamber creaked open and Dulcea came in. As the days had passed, Zack had come up with a thousand questions that he wanted to ask her, but now that she stood before him, none of them came to mind. He sank back down to sit on the mattress and glowered at her, feeling slightly irritated by her very presence. She watched him carefully, her expression neutral, and said nothing.

Finally, Zack could stand the awkward silence no longer. He looked her in the eyes and demanded, "Why did you let them take us?"

Dulcea's expression remained neutral. She knew immediately what he was talking about, but if it bothered her, she did not let it show. "I did not know what they truly intended to do with you," she said softly.

"But you knew they were up to something."

She did not attempt to deny it. "I sensed that they were not what they seemed… but I felt no ill will from them toward you."

Zack tried not to let anger get the better of him. Of course Dulcea hadn't known. It was ridiculous to think she would have known and done nothing, but he had desperately wanted someone to blame for everything that had befallen him and Trini. Someone that, unlike Ivan Ooze, was still alive to face his wrath. He'd already thought of all of this, and had thought himself prepared for the eventuality of dealing with Dulcea. Apparently he had not been as well prepared as he thought.

"Zack," she said gently, "if I had known that you or Trini would come to harm the way you did, I never would have allowed you to go. I can read men's faces and sneak glimpses into their hearts, but even I do not know everything." She managed a weak smile. "I am glad that you are okay."

"Am I?" he asked. "I don't feel okay." He still felt hollow inside. Trapped, powerless.

"You are alive," she murmured. "And you are healing. The hardest part is behind you now, or will be soon."

Her answer wasn't very reassuring. "You know," he told her, "everyone back home always loved those grand adventure stories. And I did, too. But now that I've lived through one, I wish I'd stayed home."

"I can promise you one thing at least," Dulcea responded. "I promise that you will return home."

Some of his pent-up frustration dissipated. "Soon?"

She nodded. "Soon."

 

 

_She plummeted from the edge of infinity, hurled downward by a dragon's wrath. Knowledge surged within her, threatening to overwhelm her. Divine powers, gods, whatever they were… she had glimpsed them in that brief brush with the other world. She could still hear whispers of their power echoing through her. And all that, after the barest instant of contact._

_She fell and did not try to halt it. Erë's words had rendered her all but helpless._

_Her augmented eyes could see more than those of a mere human. Even from this height, even tumbling out of control as she was, she could recognize her friends where they stood below, watching the castle burn._

_Her heart warmed oddly at the sight of them, a last, clinging vestige of humanity that she had tried to leave behind. Death drew ever closer as she fell and fell, but curiosity kept her momentarily fixated on those human friends._

_She could finally see:_

_Delicate silver lines like puppets' strings connected each of them to that other world – to one or more of the divine powers, linking them to the gods that controlled their lives. Each of them bore at least one, but some were tied by many. Looking at her own body where it lay amidst the flames, she could see at least a dozen threads binding her. She recognized two of the energies she was connected to as belonging to Hrag and Erë, but the rest were a mystery to her._

_But what worried her was Trini. The poor girl was practically smothered by shining silver strands. Kimberly understood without knowing how that this meant Trini was at the nexus of some sort of divine power play._

_A divine conspiracy,_ she thought bitterly, aware that she was waking from the dream. _Since all those lovely lines mean is that the gods are using us as pawns, stealing our free will and conspiring to make us do what they want._

This time, Kimberly was able to withstand the onslaught of sensation that followed tentatively opening her eyes, and found herself in a darkened room. Tommy sat nearby, watching her intently. Tommy.

She realized with no small amount of surprise that she knew who she was and, more importantly, where she was. She squeezed her eyes shut again and groaned. "How long was I…" she trailed off, not sure of what she had intended to ask. "Oh, gods." Even talking hurt.

Tommy took her hand in his and sensation jolted through her. It felt as if she had never touched another human being before in her entire life. "Kim," he breathed. There was so much passion in that voice that she risked opening her eyes again to see him through her tears. He looked haggard, as if he hadn't slept in days. He'd been watching over her, she knew, unable to rest until he knew she was safe.

"Tommy," she said, her voice more like a croak than anything else. That was all she could manage for a long time, but he remained patiently beside her until she could gather her thoughts. "Tommy… is it over? Did we win?"

It was too much to hope for a smile, or anything resembling a joyous victory. "Yeah," he said. "We won."

"Good."

He did smile, then, and almost laughed.

"What?" she asked.

"You just sounded so… determined just now," he told her. "Like if it wasn't over, you'd get back up right now and make it happen."

She didn't think she could get out of bed just yet – at least, not without a splitting headache – but she had to admit he was right. If Ivan Ooze had somehow managed to survive, she would hunt him down and destroy him all over again, because she wasn't about to let a monster like that near her friends ever again. Even if it meant sacrificing herself all over again, she would…

"Kim," Tommy interjected. "It's over. Calm down." There was an edge of desperation in his voice that took her aback. For the first time she realized that what she had done to defeat Ivan Ooze – whatever that truly meant – had frightened him. She only remembered it in bits and pieces, herself. It had all seemed so natural at the time, at least to her.

"I'm sorry," she told him, struggling and managing to sit upright. "I didn't have time to explain what I needed to do. If I had waited, he would have…" The idea was frightening, even now. She didn't want to think about it.

Tommy nodded, though he looked pained, and then handed her a glass of water that had been sitting on a small table beside the bed. She gulped it all down gratefully, realizing just how parched she had been. She stared at the empty cup for a while, even though it was hard to see in the dim light. It gave her an excuse not to look at Tommy. And it gave her time to figure out what she wanted to say.

There were so many things she needed to tell him, but they were all jumbled up on her head and it was a real struggle to make sense of them. She knew in some way this was an effect of her transformation back there and that she could seek help from Dulcea or Zordon, and they would be happy to help her try to understand, but at the same time she was reluctant to do so. _I'm tired of being told what to do and how to feel,_ she realized and set the empty cup aside to look up at her husband.

"Tommy," she said, her voice little more than a whisper. He looked up at her, expectant. "Come here."

He obeyed, though he joined her on the bed more tentatively than she would have liked, as if he were afraid of hurting her. And snuggled warm and safe in her husband's arms, listening to the reassuring sound of his heartbeat, Kimberly lay down to sleep off the last lingering aftereffects of her ordeal.

 

 

While his friends spent their time recovering from the battle with Ivan Ooze, Billy saw Trini safely to the healers and then immediately buried himself in work again. It was easier to throw himself into the vast pile of work to be done in the moldering archives and in Zedd's office than to contemplate the past few days. Though if he were brutally honest with himself, it was far more than the last few days that required contemplation. What had happened had been building for months, maybe even years.

The dust was settling. Peace was sure to be restored over the land of Phaedos now that Zedd and Ivan Ooze were gone and Jason was, at least ostensibly, in charge. For the first time in months, Billy did not have any immediate worries hanging over his head, except perhaps to wonder when he and the others might go home.

The problem was that without a conflict to wonder and worry over, Billy was free to think about other things. Like magic. And, unfortunately, after seeing what magic could truly accomplish, Billy was even more curious than he had ever been before. But he was also more frightened of it than ever before.

It seemed amazing to him now that he had once doubted the very existence of such forces. He'd thought the tales of royal magic were just that, mere tales. He'd thought Zordon a wise old man, but no more a sorcerer than any other man might be. Certainly, Zordon had never given any proof of his magical ability, though rumors had always flown through the castle whenever the Queen's old adviser had been around.

That wasn't the worst part, however.

The worst part was that, to Billy's eye, magic seemed contradictory and fickle, never following the same set of rules twice. The worst part was, he wanted to figure it out. Its very contradictions made it all the more fascinating to him. He wanted to know why magic acted one way for Rita Repulsa, and a totally different way for Zedd or Ivan Ooze – or Kimberly. It worked, he knew, yet another way for him and the other Ninjetti… and yet he suspected that all magic flowed from the same source and, beneath the surface, shared the same properties and possibilities. It was all connected somehow, and part of him wanted desperately to figure it out.

He could have asked Dulcea, he knew. She might even have told him what she knew. But Billy's experience in the spirit world had taught him that she might be only guessing, that even Zordon might be only guessing. No one in the mortal world might truly understand magic. It might be better to ask the dragons, but Billy had seen no sign of them since the battle with Ivan Ooze. And he was glad he hadn't. Jason, Tommy, and Kimberly might be perfectly at home with the enormous magical beasts, but Billy found them unnerving and frightening in their sheer elemental power.

It was better, he had quickly decided, to quash his curiosity with work than to actually pursue a deeper understanding of the workings of magic.

That didn't stop him from hoping to find something pertaining to magic in Zedd's office. For an evil overlord of a kingdom turned to stone, the man had generated a shocking amount of paperwork in addition to accumulating an enormous stockpile of ancient books. Some of the books seemed to date back to the days of old Phaedos, to judge by their fragile, faded condition. He was reluctant to touch those, knowing that handling them might destroy them. So for now he focused on the loose papers that were scattered everywhere in the office.

The papers, at least the few that Billy could understand, told him that Zedd had not stopped at conquering Phaedos. He'd also subsumed many of the neighboring lands and kingdoms into his empire, subjugating them in a variety of terrible ways.

Billy set the third such record of conquest aside, picked up another, and sighed. His eyes felt gritty, but it did not occur to him that he should probably get some rest. Instead, he wondered if Jason realized the full extent of modern-day Phaedos. Somehow, he thought not. "Jason, my friend," he muttered, "You are going to have your work cut out for you."

Leaves of paper rustled softly, the only warning that the office had been invaded. Billy glanced up and found Katherine standing in front of him, looking somewhat amused – and irritatingly well-rested. "Billy, how many times do I have to tell you, when you start talking to yourself it's time to take a break?"

He looked up at her, feeling somewhat chagrined. "I can't," he admitted.

Her expression shifted to one of deep concern. "Billy…"

He shook his head. He almost hoped that would dislodge the troublesome thoughts that were plaguing him. Kat met his gaze with guileless blue eyes, and he knew he couldn't lie to her. She would know if he did. She'd known him too long not to know when he was struggling. And, too, she had known him too long to let him struggle alone, even if he wanted to.

"It's too much," he told her. "There's too much in here that we need to know, that _Jason_ needs to know before these Phaedans get their claws in him. How can he hope to take command here, much less to rule wisely, when he knows nothing about this place or the damage Zedd did?"

Kat gently pried the paper he was holding out of his grip; he noted idly that it was written in Tayene script, showing just how far Zedd's influence had reached: nearly all the way home. A few more centuries, and Zedd's blight might even have reached that homeland. "That may be true," she admitted, "but there is no reason that you should have to do this all by yourself. I can help you. And I'm sure if you ask that Adam and Rocky, and even Zack, would be more than happy to help."

Billy frowned. "But you've been helping look after Trini," he protested, recalling that someone had told him something along those lines. He was losing track of time as much as his friends. When, he wondered idly, was the last time he had slept?

"Trini grows stronger every day," Kat informed him. He had a feeling she was aware of his wandering attention. "She isn't going to need someone to keep an eye on her every moment for much longer. And besides, I've been splitting that duty with Kim and Aisha."

Billy heard her use the nickname, and wondered if she realized she'd become friends with a Queen. Somehow he doubted it.

"Aisha's with her now, actually," Kat went on. "So I decided to come up here."

"To help me?" Billy asked. He was still doubtful of the idea. Katherine was skilled in handling an archives, and had been trained by his master just as he had, but she had never been as skilled with languages as he was. He didn't know how much she would actually be able to help. But then again, he wasn't sure of much anymore.

"No. To make you go get some rest."

She was starting to sound altogether too much like Trini for his taste. That thought startled him, but he couldn't deny it. He would have much rather had Kat back, than have her looking after him and mothering him like Trini, no matter how much he needed someone to step in and make him look after himself. Maybe it was the exhaustion talking, but…

Katherine smiled wryly, her point more than aptly proven. "See? You can't even focus on our conversation right now. All of these books and papers, everything that's in here can wait. You will do no one any good if you collapse from sheer exhaustion, or miss something important because you're too tired to focus properly."

He had no argument for that. And he was tired enough that when she took him by the hand and fairly dragged him away from his work, he didn't protest.

 

 

Long after Tommy had departed, Kimberly lay curled up in her bed. _Their_ bed, she reminded herself, feeling serene and secure in that relationship for the first time in a long time. She hadn't fully realized until now just how much she'd needed to mend that bond. In spite of Rita's best efforts, she loved him and it had been tearing her apart to be at odds with him.

He had only left a short while ago, and she already missed him. She understood where he had gone and why – Jason needed every ally he could get, and Tommy was his staunchest supporter and most trusted companion. But his presence helped to quiet the surge of memories and sensations that still plagued her at random moments, and she missed him now that he was gone. When he was near, she felt almost like herself again. But he could only spend a part of each day with her because Jason needed him, too.

This had only been their routine for a single day and night now, and already she was tired of it. She, perhaps selfishly, wanted Tommy all to herself. Not for the first time, she found herself feeling irritated with her rank and the fact that, in reality, it seemed to signify nothing.

As she lay there, surrounded by the lingering warmth of Tommy's presence, she turned away from her irritation and tried once again to sort through her jumbled thoughts. It was becoming a distressing pattern, to devote most of her waking hours to this project, but she needed to figure out what had happened to her and what her newfound knowledge meant for the future. She remembered, in bits and flashes, too many troubling things to simply let them go.

The divine powers she'd sensed, greater even than the dragons… She might once have called them gods, but now she was dubious of their power and their intentions.

And the shining silver threads, connecting her and all of her friends to the whims of those powers, whatever they were. Pawns. She and her friends and every living mortal creature, they were all just pawns.

Those memories were troubling enough, but they were not alone.

Even now, in the darkness of her bedchamber, it made her head hurt to think of it. She rolled onto her side, curled her legs up and hugged them to her chest.

She had so many things yet to figure out, but she could ill afford the time to do it. She knew that Jason could use her support just as much as he could use Tommy's. She knew she should set this aside and do what needed to be done… and yet right now she couldn't bring herself to do it. It was all she could do to spend a few hours each day sitting with Trini. When she'd heard that Aisha and Kat were looking after Trini, she'd foolishly insisted on helping. And they had allowed her, because she was their Queen and they would not tell her no even if everyone else did.

She uncurled herself, threw off the blankets, and forced herself to sit upright. It was probably about time for her to take a turn with Trini. Maybe she would even be recovered enough for a conversation. If not… well, at least Kimberly wouldn't just be lying here in her bedchamber all alone, thinking dark thoughts and wondering how she had come to be so certain of things she had no way of knowing.

She took off her flowing nightdress, but paused before getting dressed. She took one of the small candles that lit the room from its place at her bedside and took it with her to the large mirror at the far end of the room. It was difficult to see in the dim light, but she could make out her own image in the old glass.

She looked the same as she always had. There was no outward evidence of what had happened to her. She'd been worried that the shock might have had some terrible effect – in the stories a great shock always turned a person's hair white – but was pleased to see that she remained intact and her hair remained refreshingly brown. There was no sign that her magic powers had all but vanished, save for those she had partitioned off within her pink diamond ring. There was no sign that she no longer heard the voices of her ancestors and could not seem to reach even Bryndis.

And there was no sign at all that she was pregnant, but she knew it without a doubt.

_There is no way I can know that,_ she told herself, trying to be logical. But she remembered, quite vividly, the shocking sensation. It had been one of many when her spirit reconnected with her body, one among a million separate and equally overwhelming realizations: the shock at realizing that there was another presence there, growing safe and sound within her womb. A presence that would one day be another human being, her heir. Her future daughter.

At first it had been lost amidst everything else, but last night while she lay in Tommy's embrace it had come shimmering to the surface of her thoughts and it would no longer let her deny it.

"There's no way," she reiterated out loud, but failed to convince herself.

She _knew_. And there was no going back.

She'd lost track of the days and her cycle during the trek across Phaedos, and couldn't remember the last time she'd bled. She knew she would have to start counting the days now, or else no one would believe her until her pregnancy began to show. And she would have to figure out a way to tell Tommy that she'd been carrying his child through everything that had happened. He and the others had been happy to have her back in one piece, but they had all made it clear that they were appalled by her recklessness. And that had been before…

"He's going to kill me," she murmured. Her reflection was unsympathetic. "They're _all_ going to kill me."

And then she hurried to get dressed and go see Trini. Trini would know what to do. She hoped.

 

 

When she woke up, Trini felt warm for the first time in weeks. And more than that, she was _comfortable._ There was a soft mattress beneath her and blankets wrapped all around her. All things considered, it felt like heaven after what she had been through. Unhappy to have woken from her first sound sleep in what seemed like forever, she sighed and burrowed deeper into the thick, luxurious blankets.

It took her longer than she would have liked to admit to realize that she was not alone in that big soft bed. Somewhat afraid of what she might find, she rolled over to see just who it was that was with her.

"Aisha?"

Aisha, who was curled up next to her and apparently dozing as well, opened her eyes and smiled. "You were expecting someone else? Kimberly and Katherine already took their turns staying with you today. Now it's mine."

Trini felt her cheeks heat a little, and avoided mentioning that while she had not really been expecting it, she had at least been _hoping_ to find Jason with her. "What about…"

"Jason?" Aisha asked, as perceptive as ever, quirking a mischievous brow as she asked.

"Zack," Trini countered, blushing even harder. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Aisha assured her. "They've got him in the next suite of rooms over from this one. Booted the rest of us out so you two could have the best rooms in the place."

Trini wasn't quite sure what or where 'the place' was, as she had no memory of arriving there, but she could only assume it was the castle in Phaedos where her friends had made their base of operations. "He's really okay then?"

"Yes."

Trini slumped back into the mattress and wondered if it was stuffed with feathers. It certainly felt like it. "I owe him my life."

"And I'm sure he'll remind you of that at every possible opportunity from now on."

Trini laughed weakly. "And what about everyone else? Everything is kind of a blur in my mind right now…"

The look on Aisha's face bothered Trini, because it said plainly that there was something important Aisha was not going to tell her, but then Aisha smiled and the look was gone. "You did seem pretty out of sorts after the battle, but then things happened really fast and I didn't get to make sure you were going to be okay."

Suddenly Trini was glad she barely remembered anything that had happened after the battle. Even thinking about the past few weeks was enough to make her feel sick all over again. She couldn't help it: she groaned.

"Let's get you some food," Aisha suggested.

As nauseated as she felt, Trini's stomach still ached with hunger at the mere mention of food. She could barely remember the last time she had a meal that had not been drugged or made her sick, and while her ring's power had helped rejuvenate her, there was no substitute for real food. She must have eaten since her arrival in Phaedos, but she had been so out of sorts that she had no memory of it. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"This is the third day since the battle," Aisha told her.

Only three days? It felt like an eternity. Trini was dying to ask about Jason – where was he, and why wasn't he here watching over her, when he had all but gone to the ends of the earth to rescue her? – but she didn't. She let Aisha bring her a big bowl of stew and ate as much of it as she could. And that was as much activity as she could handle. She had only managed to eat half of her stew when exhaustion swept over her again.

Aisha gently cleared the dishes and tray away and tucked her back into bed as she fell asleep.

The next time she woke up, she actually felt halfway refreshed. She knew she still had a long way to go before she would be fully recovered from her ordeal, but at least now she felt alive again.

It was Kimberly watching over her now, and the Queen looked ecstatic to see her awake. "Trini!"

The next thing she knew, Kimberly had pulled her into a fierce hug. "I'm so glad you're safe," she murmured.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Trini admitted.

"I was so scared," Kimberly said, "but you're safe now, and that's what matters."

Trini wasn't entirely sure she agreed with her old friend, but for now she was happy to let that go and just enjoy their time together. Her questions could wait for now. It had been a long time since it was just her and Kimberly, with no responsibilities to worry about.

But of course Kimberly immediately dashed all her hopes of a quiet, uneventful afternoon – or whatever time it was – together. "Trini, I need your help."

She had to consider it for a moment. She was feeling better than she had in a long time, it was true. But Kimberly's requests had a tendency to be… demanding. And she was by no means ready for demanding just yet, no matter how much she might want to help. "I'm not in any shape to be pretending I'm a knight again," she pointed out. "But if you just need someone to talk to, I can probably help with that."

Kimberly's face was frighteningly grim. "Okay, but you can't tell _anyone_ what I'm about to tell you..."

 

 

It was well past midnight when Jason crept down the hall and into the room where Trini was recovering. He knew she would probably be asleep, but it was the first time since returning to Phaedos that he'd been able to get away from his would-be Councilors long enough to pay her a visit. They'd been hounding him for days, pushing him in a dozen directions at once. He knew, more or less, what they were up to, and he didn't much like it.

Billy had advised him to stay the course, lest the Phaedans make good on their plans to turn him into a mere figurehead. And Jason was doing his best to do just that, but it felt like a losing battle. No matter what he said or how stubborn he was, it was as if they simply would not see reason. He'd only managed to make them yield a handful of times over the past several days. Refusing to bend to their demands was easier, but they were persistent.

_But not persistent enough_, he thought.

It was dark within the chamber, but he'd come prepared for that. A moment later and he had the candles nearest the door lit. He looked over to find a pair of dark eyes blinking owlishly at him in the gloom. Not Trini's eyes, but Aisha's. Trini slept peacefully beside her in the bed, completely undisturbed by his presence.

Aisha, on the other hand, watched him for a moment in silence before motioning for him to go.

Absurdly irate at being thwarted in this foolish attempt at catching Trini alone, Jason turned and left. It was harder than he'd thought, knowing she was so near and never being able to so much as talk to her.

He hadn't gone far when the door opened and closed again behind him. "Jason…"

He turned. "Aisha. What is it?"

"Are you okay?"

Jason sighed and rubbed his face. "I don't know anymore."

"You want to talk about it?"

He grimaced. "They're doing this on purpose, making it so I never have time to see her. There's always time if I want to see Zack, but never Trini. It's like they're trying to keep us apart." Even now he was trying to give the Phaedans the benefit of the doubt… but it wasn't "like" anything. He knew exactly what they were doing, and why.

And so did Aisha. She smiled faintly. "Jason. You flew a thousand miles on a dragon's back and helped Kimberly defeat the greatest evil in the world to save her. They'd have to be fools not to see that you love her." Her expression sobered. "That's the real problem here, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, hating to admit it. As ridiculous as it seemed, he had somehow found himself in the same position Kimberly had been in after her parents died. Sooner or later, he would have to get married. And it would have to be a "good" match, not the match his heart wanted, no matter how worthy Trini was. Over the past few weeks, he'd truly begun to understand Kimberly's frustration and obstinance all those months ago. "I'd do anything for her, Aisha. I know she'd do the same for me. And it'll never be enough to convince them we should be together."

"Screw the Council. Marry her anyway."

He laughed bitterly. "That the same advice you gave Kim?"

"No," she admitted. "I told Kim to marry _you_." Seeing the confusion on his face, she chuckled. "What I really did was give her the advice that worked for me... but I've learned since then that my way might not be the right way for everyone."

"Your way." He stated it, not quite questioning.

"I told her to marry you and have Tommy, too, if she wanted him."

The idea outraged him a little, but not as much as it would have done if she had mentioned it to him back then. "You told her to take a lover?" he asked, incredulous. "That had to have gone well..."

"She considered it... for about half a second." She sighed. "It seemed like the only workable compromise at the time. But then things fell out very differently from how I thought they might." This time she shrugged. "Guess it's not my place to know the future."

It certainly would have been easier if she could have warned them all of this would happen. "Sometimes I wonder how much I can get away with before they'll rebel against me," he admitted. "I don't know how Kim does it."

"Well, for one thing: she has men like you and Zack to stand by her and keep her safe," Aisha pointed out. "What you've got to do right now is stop worrying so much about Trini. Trust me, she'll wait for you to get this mess sorted out. You need to be figuring out which members of the Phaedan Council are men you can actually trust. I'd suggest appointing some women to the Council, but…"

Jason caught her drift and smirked. "You think they'd tell a Queen descended from an ancient Phaedan line that she can't be on my Council?" Kimberly was probably the only one he could realistically get past the Phaedans and their old-fashioned insistence that women were inferior creatures, at least right now, but Jason thought that Trini, Aisha, and Katherine would have made equally good additions to his Council. Dulcea, too, but he knew there was no way he would ever convince her.

"I think they'd try," she answered honestly. "But could they stop her? There's the real question."

Jason actually laughed, this time in genuine amusement. "Look what she did to Ivan Ooze. There's no power in this world that can stop her when she's got her heart set on something."


	48. Hidden Truths

Slowly, life in Phaedos began to return to normal. Or, at least it returned to what Tommy assumed was normal. He had no way of knowing what the kingdom had been like before the cataclysmic battle between Ivan Ooze and Zedd had sent many of the human inhabitants fleeing and turned the rest to stone for a thousand years. What he did know was that the Phaedans were archaic at best and downright infuriating at worst.

He would have avoided them at all costs, had Kimberly and Jason not needed his support so much. But they did, and so he resigned himself to dealing with the increasingly outraged – and enraging – Phaedans on a daily basis. It had been bad enough being suddenly thrown into politics back home, but he'd been willing to accept that as a necessary consequence of marrying Kimberly. This was more difficult to deal with because it was so very unnecessary, but for Jason he was determined to try.

Not, he thought, that the Phaedans were making it easy. Thankfully, he had a few hours yet before the next meeting of the Council. And he intended to spend that time as far away from any Phaedans as he could.

To that end, he sought out his wife and was surprised to find her missing from their chambers. He questioned the servants, but no one seemed to know where she had gone. In the end he supposed it was just as well. _He_ could wager a guess as to where she had gone – no doubt to spend time with Trini – and if his guess was correct, he knew he should let her have her space.

With Jason occupied, as always, with obnoxious Phaedans and Billy buried in Zedd's paperwork as if it were actually interesting or valuable, Tommy sought out his other companions. Any of them would do, though he had half a mind to see if Rocky and Adam were up for an afternoon of sparring. He was finally, _finally_ beginning not to feel the effects of his brush with death so much. It was a wonderful feeling and he was in a mood to see just how much of his strength had returned.

But his feet took him up to the castle battlements instead of down to the training yard, and that was where he found Dulcea. When he saw her, staring toward the north and looking pensive, he half wondered if she had somehow summoned him. But there was surprise on her face when she glanced his way and caught sight of him, and he rethought his assessment. If he wasn't mistaken, something was really bothering her.

Deciding that training could wait for another day, he made his way over to where she was standing. It was frigid and windy up on the battlements, both portents of the rapidly approaching winter.

"Everything okay?" Tommy asked when it became obvious that Dulcea was not going to say anything.

She turned her gaze back to the north. "Much in the world is changing," she said at last.

"Since Kimberly defeated Ivan Ooze?"

"Yes."

He supposed it made sense, at least in light of what he knew about the Sword of Power – and the tidbits of information Kimberly and Jason had let slip. But they were both of them very cagy about what, exactly, had gone on during that battle. Tommy did not find their reluctance very reassuring, but he respected both of them enough to let them have their silence. They were under enough pressure from the Phaedans right now. They didn't need him pushing for answers, too. And he had little doubt they would both tell him more when they were good and ready to do so.

Dulcea, on the other hand… The Phaedans avoided her and she kept to herself most of the time. Tommy had no problem asking her the questions that had been bothering him the most. But this question was new: "What does that mean?"

Dulcea thought for a moment. "When I spoke to you of powers in flux, I told you that your friends' actions had the potential to alter the fate of the entire world." She paused to give him time to remember. He'd nearly forgotten that particular part of their conversation in the wake of the events that had followed it. Dulcea's vague cautioning about "powers in flux" had paled in comparison to the more immediate danger his wife and his friend were in. "That has not changed. Only now, those powers are settling into their new roles."

"So Kimberly and Jason really changed things?"

"Yes." She smiled wryly, as if to ask: _you doubted?_

He remembered all too well Dulcea's dire prediction for Jason that day. They had been standing in nearly this same place when she confessed her fear that with the Sword's power in hand and his closest friends at risk, Jason would descend into darkness. Tommy had been surreptitiously keeping an eye on his friend ever since, and had seen no sign of impending evil. Kimberly had been acting somewhat strange ever since, but she was Kimberly and he knew full well she would do whatever she wanted. So, somewhat hopefully, he guessed, "For the better?"

"There is no 'better', Tommy," Dulcea admitted. "The best we can strive for is balance."

For some reason, her simple declaration sent a chill down his spine. "Balance… Like good and evil?"

She nodded. "Kimberly went a long way toward reestablishing balance when she gave up her power –"

"Wait," Tommy interrupted, shocked by the implication. Kimberly had told him nothing of any sort of power loss. "She's lost her power?"

"Not all of it," Dulcea assured him, "though I daresay she couldn't pull a stunt like that again. Rather than embracing the influx of power and the immortality it might have granted her, it appears that she rejected it, though I don't know if even she is aware of it yet. I have been… reluctant to approach her."

Tommy was baffled by this answer. He had never even suspected that such a thing might be possible. He'd assumed that Kimberly had been born with magic, although it had been locked up until her coronation and marriage, and that she would have that magic until the day she died.

Dulcea's expression gentled. "I think you had best ask your dragon if you want to know more," she told him. "Erë was there. No doubt she has a better understanding of what happened than I do."

Erë…

He hadn't seen her since the battle, and even then she had seemed so infuriated by Kimberly's actions that Tommy hadn't even thought of asking her about it. But now, she would have had some time to cool her heels, so maybe it would be a better time to ask. Maybe. But for now he had questions for Dulcea, and didn't have to worry about her wrath.

"You said Kimberly helped with this balance thing," he said. "Does that mean we might have more trouble?"

"When you killed Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, there was a slight shift in the flow of power in the world. But when Ivan Ooze died… you tipped the scales very heavily in favor of good, and of order. While we might see this as a good thing…" She paused, as if wondering just how much she could safely tell him. "Life requires chaos, Tommy. Light requires darkness. And darkness light. These powers, they are _all_ intertwined in very fundamental and very important ways. One is not truly 'good' nor the other truly 'evil,' these are merely our perceptions."

He was beginning to understand, though he didn't much like it. This would have been much simpler if the goal was merely to annihilate all evil from the world so that good was all that was left. "So what you're saying is…"

"Sacrifices may have to be made to restore balance," Dulcea responded. "Else a new evil may one day arise, even stronger than before."

Tommy felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "What do you mean, sacrifices?"

"Zordon is already fading from this world," she confessed. "I have found no way to free him from his prison without killing him, and his power grows weaker by the day. Soon, it will no longer be enough to sustain him, and he will disappear from our world forever."

Tommy had known Zordon only by reputation, but it had been a great reputation indeed. Though he'd been rumored to be a sorcerer who dabbled in dangerous magics, he had been better known for the counsel he gave to the former Queen, Kimberly's mother. And Tommy knew that Kimberly had regarded the old sorcerer quite highly, even though he'd wanted her to marry Jason. For her sake, he'd done his best to forget the intense hatred of Zordon that Rita's spell had forced into his heart, but a vague and uneasy mistrust still lingered in spite of his best efforts.

"There's nothing we can do?" he asked, aware that his friends would take this loss hard. "What about Kimberly? Or Erë or Hrag…"

Dulcea shook her head. "At the height of her power… perhaps Kimberly could have found a way. But now I know of no human artifice that can free him, and in the end… it is his choice." She looked unspeakably sad standing there like that, as if she were losing her only true friend in the entire world. But then… maybe she was.

"So he's just going to give up and disappear forever?" Tommy fought against his rising anger. He couldn't understand meekly waiting to disappear, and not fighting against the spell that bound him, even if he felt that his death would bring 'balance' to the world.

The sorceress looked at him sharply. Looking into her ageless eyes, he realized he couldn't understand. He never could. She and Zordon had lived for untold centuries; they might look like humans, but they would never be human. Their perceptions and their motivations would always be different from the mortal humans around them.

"If balance is not restored, there is a chance of an even greater evil than Ivan Ooze arising," she murmured. "But if we disappear… then balance may perhaps be restored without an increase in evil."

"We," Tommy repeated, suddenly numb. "You're going to go with him."

She looked back toward the north and didn't answer him.

"Dulcea, _why_?"

Her voice was cold when she answered, cold as the frigid north wind that heralded the coming winter, and brooked no argument. "I do not expect you to understand."

 

Zack was back on his feet less than a week after the return to Phaedos. Jason was pleased to have another close friend and ally to add to his Council, which now included both Tommy and Kimberly as well, but he was also worried. It was taking Trini much longer to recover than any of the others. Even Kimberly, who had to all appearances died and been reborn in the process of defeating Ivan Ooze, was already up and about.

Zack had explained what he and Trini had gone through on their way to Ooze's castle, but Jason was still impatient to see her well again, not least of all because it would be easier to see her if he didn't have to go visit her in her sickroom to do it. Recognizing his friend's frustration for what it was, Zack had laughed knowingly and assured him that she would be back to her old self soon enough.

Living in Phaedos was getting easier, however slowly. With Zack and Tommy, and often even Kimberly, to back him up during the interminable Council meetings, Jason had an easier time reining in his frustration and impatience with the Phaedans. He was starting to feel like they were actually making progress in their plans for the empire's future, though the Phaedans were extremely wary of Jason's ambitions to form an alliance with Kimberly rather than subsume her kingdom into his own and they showed an alarming disregard for the hardships the empire was soon to face.

As far as the Phaedans were concerned, Kimberly was merely ruler of an errant Phaedan province, and as such her kingdom should naturally fall under Jason's rule now that Phaedos had been freed from Lord Zedd. Jason vehemently disagreed. Based on what he knew of Phaedos, he already felt that the empire was too large to maintain itself. If Zedd and Ivan Ooze hadn't invaded when they did and effectively froze Phaedos in time, Jason had a feeling the so-called "Kingdom of Heaven" would have lost its mythical status and fallen into ruin long ago.

It was just too damned big. It had long ago swallowed up dozens of smaller kingdoms and other communities, swelling over the years to an enormous and ungainly size. Jason recognized that this not only made the empire unwieldy, it was dangerous to its continued existence – how could one man hope to create harmony between so many conflicting voices? But the Phaedans, at least those on the Council, were determined to hold on to every last square mile of land. And, hopefully, to add more land at the first opportunity.

And this was just the latest headache in his daily battles with the Council. Battles which, unfortunately did not end when the Council's meetings did. He'd called the end of the latest such meeting at its appointed time, and still the Phaedans followed him out of the meeting hall, their chatter unceasing.

It was enough to give him a headache, until he rounded a corner in the hallway outside and ran right into Kimberly… and Trini. He couldn't help it; he grinned like a fool the instant he recognized her. She hardly looked like herself, still overly skinny after her ordeal and clad in pink as she was. She must have borrowed the dress, which looked nothing like the archaic garb worn by the Phaedans, from Katherine. Kimberly and Aisha were both far too short to lend her clothing that had any hope of fitting properly.

Ignoring the Phaedans that scrambled to recapture his attention, he strode over to where the two women were waiting. Kimberly pretended to simper like the Phaedan women often did until he was forced to roll his eyes out of sheer exasperation.

"You two are a sight for sore eyes," he said. "Well, maybe not you, Kim."

"Oh, very funny. You keep talking like that and I won't join your Council after all," she warned.

"You shouldn't be so mean to him," Trini teased.

Kimberly pouted. "Oh come on, I'm already doing the both of you a huge favor. I can give him a hard time if I want."

"Speaking of that favor," Trini prompted.

Jason frowned. Clearly something was going on that they hadn't seen fit to tell him about, and he wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. Kimberly's plots seldom worked out in his favor.

Kimberly turned to the lingering Phaedans, who were still lurking about in the hopes of making their cases to Jason, and put on her best impression of imperial insolence. "I'm sorry, good Councilors," she said, her voice dripping with condescension that was not entirely feigned. "But I need to commandeer your Emperor here for a bit. Be on your way. I'm sure he'll find you again when he's ready."

The Phaedans gave her looks to freeze water, but they dispersed with a minimum of grumbling.

"Happy?" she asked Trini.

But Trini didn't seem to hear her. She was looking at Jason, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Emperor?"

"The Phaedans may have chosen me to be the new Emperor when I killed the old one," Jason explained, regretting more than ever that he hadn't really had a chance to talk with her since bringing her back to Phaedos. To Kim, he added, "You never told her?"

"I thought you would have told her by now! She's been here over a week!"

Jason's temper flared, but the flash of anger quickly faded. It wasn't as if he had deliberately avoided telling Trini. His duties as Emperor – and the constant meddling of his Council – had kept him from seeing her at all before now. As far as he was concerned, it was Kimberly that should have kept Trini up to date on what had happened, but clearly Kim had had her own priorities.

Before the conversation could devolve into a real argument, Kimberly gave him a pointed look, muttered a graceless, "You're welcome," and took her leave. Jason winced. The first time in a week that he'd managed to be alone with Trini, and now she was confused and upset before they'd even really had a chance to talk.

"They made you their emperor?" Trini asked quietly.

"I'm still not entirely sure how that works," he admitted. "But at the time it seemed better than the alternative. How much did Kim tell you about what happened when we got to Phaedos?"

She shook her head. "Not much. She avoids the topic if she can and doesn't like to answer my questions if I bring it up. Aisha told me a bit more… but she doesn't seem to know as much as Kim." She sighed, and he got the distinct impression that she really did not want to be there right now.

"Come on," he said, taking her arm. "Let's go somewhere quiet." _And private_, he added mentally.

She was sullen and silent as he led her to the private sitting room adjoining his chambers. "Don't you have another meeting soon?" she asked as he closed and latched the outer door behind them.

"They can wait."

She looked skeptical, knowing full well the obligations expected of rulers, but she sat when he indicated she should do so. He pulled another chair over and sat next to her. She reached out and clasped his hands in hers and for a moment he couldn't think to do anything but cling to her hands and look into her eyes. It was an enormous relief to see her again, to look into those warm, dark eyes, to touch her hands… a powerful reminder that she was alive after everything and that they were together again. Damn, how he'd missed her…

She looked away first and it dawned on him why she was acting upset: she _was_ upset. Back home, his position as a knight of the realm and one-time suitor to the Queen had made the gap between them improbably wide even from the moment they first became friends, back when they were just children. That hadn't stopped them, of course. Nor had it kept them from forging a deep and lifelong bond, a bond that had turned to love almost without either of them realizing it. But now that he was the emperor of a vast and foreign land, she must be afraid that he would be forced to find another, seemingly more suitable, woman to take to wife.

That he knew the Phaedans would do their best to make that happen only made the situation more irritating. He wanted nothing more than to comfort her, to promise her that everything would work out in the end, but he knew it wouldn't be easy. This was something they would both have to work at if they wanted it to happen. He knew he couldn't tell her that just yet, not while she was still recovering.

But she looked so hurt and confused that he had to tell her something. So he did.

He started with the journey to the sea, and told her everything that had led to his being unofficially crowned Emperor of Phaedos and helping Kimberly defeat Ivan Ooze. In the end, he left nothing out, not even the details of Zedd's demise or his experiences in obtaining the Sword of Power. As much as those incidents pained him, he didn't want to hide anything else from her.

For the most part, Trini listened quietly. She occasionally asked for clarification or made some comment on something someone had said or done, but mostly she seemed content just to listen. And when he was finally finished she surprised him, as she always did. "Are you all right?"

The question took him aback. He wasn't entirely sure how to answer.

She gently cupped his face in her hands so he had no choice but to look at her. "Jason…"

"I'll be fine," he assured her. It took everything in him not to silence her doubts with a kiss.

She gave him a knowing look, perhaps guessing the direction his thoughts had taken, but she let it – and him – go… for now.

"What about you?" he asked. "What happened…?"

"How much did Zack tell you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Everything he remembered. But you two got split up before the end," he pointed out. "He didn't know what happened to you after that, or what possessed you to push him off the castle like that in the first place."

"If I hadn't stayed behind, Ooze would have gone after both of us," she explained, "but I had a hunch that if he had at least one of us, he'd let the other go." She sighed and glanced away. "I was so weak at that point… I thought Zack would have a better chance of surviving on his own. And I thought if I died, then Ooze wouldn't have anyone to use against you. But I didn't count on him casting that spell on me to turn me into a monster."

The image of Trini as she had been transformed by Ooze's spell still occasionally haunted Jason's dreams. She'd looked so unlike herself – and so much like Scorpina – that it was unnerving even in memory. And it was equally horrifying to know it had been done to her against her will, and that Ooze had intended to use her as a weapon against her own friends.

"I still have nightmares about it," she murmured. "I wake up afraid my hands have turned into claws or I'm covered in fur again…" She shuddered. "The worst part was, I could feel him taking control of me. I knew he'd succeed no matter what I did, that I'd have to fight you." She stopped there, unable to continue. Before he could think of anything to say, she forced a smile. "I should have known you'd find a way to save me."

They'd saved each other from hurts large and small a hundred times or more over the years. As far as Jason was concerned, this was no different, even though he knew it was. This was bigger, this was…

After this, they would never be the same. But they had each other, and he was certain they would find a way through.

 

Sorting through all of the artifacts left behind after Zedd's defeat would be the work of a lifetime. Maybe more. On second thought, definitely more.

Even bringing the mess to some sort of order, so that someone might someday make sense of it, was almost more than Billy could handle. A thousand years and more in paperwork alone, and even more in ancient and highly valuable books stashed haphazardly among the papers, some of them written in languages Billy couldn't even begin to identify. For a man that seemed intent on singlehandedly conquering the world, Zedd had accumulated an impressive number of treaties and alliances in the wider world. Some of these he had eventually subsumed into Phaedos, conquered and bespelled, but others remained free allies that Jason would soon have to contend with.

It was enough to give anyone a headache.

While Billy spent his days sifting through portions of the mess and scowling, Katherine did her best to keep spirits up. She had recruited a small army of newly-freed Phaedans, mostly women and older children, to help with their efforts. Billy supposed he couldn't blame her. It made the work easier, and the Phaedans needed to know what had happened since Zedd imprisoned them all with his magic.

Billy minded these Phaedans much less than most of them, for they were far less opinionated, or at least less vocal about it, than the others. They were willing to learn and they wanted to help rebuild their country. And best of all, many of them took quickly to the skills required of an archivist. A few more months, and he might actually be able to set up a decent operation here.

Others were more problematic, sometimes due to personality clashes, and sometimes through no fault of their own. There was one woman in particular, who went by the name of Audrina, who was often the center of attention through no fault of her own. The other Phaedans simply could not seem to stop gossiping about her. They were sure she ought not to be in the dusty and ill-organized mess of Zedd's paperwork, but out among the courtiers.

The gossip was in full-force on this particular day. Apparently nothing sufficiently interesting had cropped up in the piles of paperwork all day, and a small cluster of Phaedans had decided to amuse themselves by discussing other topics. And, of course, Audrina was the topic of today's gossip, as she nearly always was.

The young woman, Billy had been made to understand, was related one way or another to the Drakes, the ancient lineage to whom the Sword of Power rightfully belonged and from whom Jason was – somehow or other, no one was quite certain how – descended. Popular opinion among the Phaedans was that Jason ought to marry the girl to reinforce the bloodline. Several of his archive-workers fell into this faction, and today they were discussing their beliefs quite vehemently. Billy kept his expression carefully neutral as he walked past, lest the gossips realize he was listening to their conversation, but the very idea was ludicrous. That Jason might marry anyone but Trini was laughable, and that bloodlines somehow conveyed worth and real power…

Billy wandered away from the Phaedans, muttering incredulously to himself. The only power in bloodlines was that of the family's name and accumulated wealth – or power that was put there by magic. That Kimberly's parents had somehow managed to produce an heir like _her_ was nothing short of a miracle, as far as Billy was concerned. By all accounts they'd both been selfish, conceited people, who had left the everyday running of their country to underlings while they focused on their rivalry with each other. There was very little of them left in Kimberly after this adventure, proof in Billy's eyes that she was made of tougher, better stuff than her parents had been, and the world would be a better place for it.

The Phaedans would be fools to reject Trini as their empress on the basis of her bloodline. Not least of all because Billy very much doubted Jason would have another woman, but because she was exactly what they needed. She was wise and calm beside Jason's more impulsive nature, and brilliantly clever besides. United, the two of them would be a force to be reckoned with. He had no doubt that they would change the world in a thousand different ways, and all of them for the better.

The hard part was making the Phaedans understand that. Billy did not envy his friends that task one bit.

Maybe it was thinking about Trini that led him round to where they'd piled the stacks of missives from Taye. At first Billy had been shocked by how many there were, but gradually he'd realized that it only made sense. Based on what he'd been able to piece together from Jason's recollections and from looking at the few maps in Zedd's collection, he'd come to the conclusion that Ivan Ooze's blight had begun to encroach upon Taye in recent centuries as his wasteland empire expanded. Dulcea had more or less confirmed these suspicions, but she had admitted there was much she did not know regarding Taye and its neighboring lands. The northlands had been her domain as much as her prison, and she would not risk traveling south even now.

At any rate, the Tayenes had obviously seen their salvation in Ooze's longtime enemy, Zedd.

Billy had not had time to go through the Tayene messages in any depth, but he suspected their attempted alliance had fallen apart, and this was what had ultimately led to the country's sealing and Trini's accidental exile. What had led to its apparent reopening a few months ago – unless that had been nothing more than a ploy on Ooze's part – was anyone's guess.

With everything in the makeshift archive running in order, except the gossips, Billy decided that maybe he did have time to start going through some of the papers to see what they were about. And he saw no reason not to start with the Tayene messages, since he was already among them. Maybe he would turn up something interesting to share with Trini.

He dug into the nearest piles of papers and, to his surprise, stumbled across something interesting after only a few minutes of skimming. Working backward from the most recent messages, which were stacked on top, he could imagine in reverse as the Tayenes became ever more desperate for salvation from Ivan Ooze. The most recent missives were curt and almost angry in tone. A few messages lower, the tone was much more congenial. And infinitely more chilling.

In exchange for an alliance with Phaedos and protection from Ivan Ooze, the Tayenes offered the hand of the Princess Trinity to the Emperor of Phaedos, a marriage that would bind the two countries for the rest of time.

Billy merely skimmed the line the first time, but something about it bothered him. He read it again, and frowned.

Trinity…

Billy narrowed his eyes in consternation. There was something there, something about that name…

Pain shot through his skull like a knife.

Through the haze of agony, he remembered: himself as a young boy, an archivist's apprentice, and the young girl being introduced to him as his master's new student. _Trinity,_ she'd said proudly, flashing a smile, her voice strangely accented. _Trini_, her companion, a gruff older man with the demeanor of a trained warrior, had corrected. _Trini_, she'd agreed somewhat glumly.

_Trini!_

His head throbbed, but the pain was already beginning to ebb. Struggling to catch his breath, Billy wondered, _Why did I never remember this until now? Why, in all the years I've known her, did I never think to ask if 'Trini' was her full name or if it was short for something else? Why…_

"Billy!"

The outburst did nothing to soothe the pain in his head, but Katherine was clearly worried about him. He had no idea where she'd come from or what he'd done to attract her attention, but he was sure she did not need to make a fuss over him. He attempted to wave her away and failed. It was only after she took his arm to physically lend her support that he realized just how weak he felt.

"Billy, what happened? Answer me if you can," Kat murmured. She shifted, slinging his arm over her shoulder so it was easier to keep him upright.

He shook his head, surprised to find that the inexplicable pain was already beginning to fade. "I need to talk to Dulcea."

 

Zack hadn't planned on seeking Dulcea out any time soon. To be honest, the sorceress creeped him out a little, with her cryptic warnings and otherworldly, not-quite-human demeanor. But when Katherine, half dragging Billy along with her, came out of nowhere and pleaded for his help in finding Dulcea, he knew he couldn't say no.

They spent the better part of an hour scouring the castle for Dulcea to no avail. It seemed as if she had simply vanished into the ether without the slightest warning. Exasperated, Zack asked, "What do you need her for, anyway?" It couldn't be _that_ urgent if they'd had this much time to waste looking for her.

"I encountered something unusual in Zedd's papers," Billy explained, "which triggered an inexplicable response. I suspect that magic may be afoot and wish to seek Dulcea's opinion on the matter."

Zack could have groaned out loud at that, but for his friends' sake he kept silent. This was bringing back too many memories of the days before Kimberly's marriage, when the fate of the kingdom hung in the balance and magic was beginning to erode their comfortable and safe way of life. For his part, Zack would have been perfectly happy to be rid of magic forever. He'd have been willing to do away with books, too, if Billy and Trini hadn't been so fond of them.

"Mind if I ask what it was you found?" he asked finally, just to break the oppressive silence.

"A proposed treaty with Taye, if I'm reading it correctly," Billy told him. Judging by the look on her face, this was the first Kat had heard of this, too.

"And that triggered your… inexplicable response?"

"I became afflicted with intense pain in my head upon reading it."

Zack shared a glance with Kat and wondered if Billy wasn't overdoing it with the reading, and how in the world he expected Dulcea to help. He'd known Billy for years, and he still struggled to follow his friend's leaps in logic sometimes. But with nothing else to do, they went back to searching for Dulcea.

"We've looked almost everywhere," Kat complained nearly a quarter of an hour later. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the healers instead?" She was right, so far as Zack could tell. He wasn't familiar with the entire castle yet, but they'd exhausted all the places that seemed likely to him.

But Billy refused. "The healers can do nothing for me now," he insisted. "I may still be weak, but the pain has passed. Now we have to find Dulcea. Only she can answer my questions."

"Who can answer your questions?" Jason asked, strolling around the corner ahead of them with Trini at his side, the two of them looking for all the world like lord and lady. Zack hid a smirk. That was new, but not an unwelcome sight.

"Dulcea," Zack and Billy said at the same time.

Jason frowned. "I haven't seen her lately."

"Tommy might know," Trini suggested. "He seems to have a special connection with her."

"Did you try the battlements?" Jason asked. "I've seen her up there quite a bit lately, though I don't know if she's there now."

Even though Zack assured them that no help was necessary, Jason and Trini tagged along as he and Kat helped Billy up to the battlements. Much to Zack's relief, Dulcea was standing not far from where they emerged onto the battlements atop the castle. She was looking at something in the distance off to the north, or perhaps that was just the direction she had chosen to stare while she directed her thoughts inward, but she seemed to sense their arrival. At any rate, she turned and strode over to meet them as they approached.

She acknowledged them all by name, but when her gaze fell on Billy her expression grew grave. "What has happened here?" she asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Zack put in.

Billy looked embarrassed at finding himself the center of attention. Once again, he recounted what had happened when he came across the proposed alliance, though this time Zack realized he was not telling the full story. There had to be more to it than he was letting on.

Dulcea looked sympathetic. She opened her mouth to say something, but Zordon spoke before she got a chance. "Dulcea, perhaps now is the time to remove the wards that have protected Trini for so long."

It took Zack a moment to realize the voice had come from the crystal pendant around Billy's neck. The others had told him about the sorcerer's plight, but it hadn't seemed possible until that very moment. But in that moment it seemed suddenly very, very real and very, very sad. Even Zack could tell how weak Zordon had become.

Trini looked as alarmed by the suggestion as Zack was, but before she could protest Dulcea had moved to stand directly in front of her. She placed her left hand on Trini's forehead and closed her eyes as she concentrated on undoing whatever magic spells had supposedly been protecting Trini. Jason watched in bewilderment, glancing to Zack as if to ask whether he should intervene or not. Zack could only shrug helplessly. At this point, they had no choice but to trust Dulcea.

After a few moments, Trini's eyes drifted closed, only to suddenly open wide as she gasped and staggered backward, away from Dulcea.

"No," she breathed. "What did you do to me? That isn't true. That _can't_ be true."

Jason rushed to catch her as she fainted. "What did you do?" he demanded of Dulcea.

Zack looked to Billy amid the mayhem, and saw his fears confirmed: Billy had been expecting this. Whatever Dulcea had just revealed to Trini, whatever truth Trini wanted so desperately to deny, Billy had uncovered among Zedd's papers.

"I removed the wards that held her memories at bay," Dulcea explained, but Jason was having none of it.

"Her memories?"

"For her own protection, many of Trini's childhood memories had to be temporarily removed from her consciousness," Zordon said ponderously, as if that explained anything. "Trini is not who you think she is, though it was a necessary deception."

Jason decided then and there that he didn't care to hear anything else Zordon or Dulcea might have to say on the subject; Zack could see it plainly on his face, and he was inclined to agree. Whatever they'd been trying to hide, it couldn't have been worth doing this to Trini.

"That's enough," Jason said. "We'll talk about this when she wakes up."

"As you wish," Zordon agreed. His voice sounded so weak and distant that Zack wondered if delaying would mean losing the chance to talk to Zordon about this at all. But it was obvious Jason didn't care about that. Right now, the only thing he cared about was Trini. And when he scooped her up into his arms and stormed off with her, they all of them knew better than to follow just yet. He would take care of her, and in the meantime they had questions in need of answers. And since Jason would want these answers, Zack would stick around to get them.

"I take it my suspicions were correct," Billy said dryly.

Dulcea closed her eyes and did not answer. She looked exhausted; Zack wondered just how much it had taken out of her to undo those warding spells.

"Yes," she said finally. "Your suspicions were correct. Though how you broke through the wards on your own, I could not say."

Kat's brow furrowed. "Billy was warded, too?"

Zack had been wondering about that, too. "If Billy was warded… what about Jason and Kim?" He was almost afraid to ask about himself.

"Jason, no. Kimberly, yes." She sighed. "Though I daresay Kimberly will already have sensed the wards being removed."

"Okay, I don't get it," Zack admitted.

"Only those who learned Trini's true identity required warding," Dulcea explained. "If Zordon had warded too many, it would have become obvious that something was going on, but it was imperative to hide her despite the risk."

All of this was threatening to make Zack's head spin. Trini wasn't who she'd always said she was? Billy and Kimberly warded, so they couldn't remember the truth? What in the world could be that important? The question burst out of him before he realized that maybe he didn't want to know. "So who the hell _is_ she?"

If her expression hadn't been so sober, he would have been positive Dulcea was pulling his leg. "Trini has lived much of her life as Kimberly's handmaid, but in truth she is the last remaining heir of Taye."

Billy's face was grim. Zack realized that must have been what he found in Zedd's papers, the thing that had caused his wards to come undone and revealed his lost memories to him: Trini's name attached to the treaty proposal from Taye. That was why he'd been so determined to track down Dulcea. "And she has no idea yet, but her people have offered her hand in marriage to the Emperor of Phaedos in exchange for peace and protection."

That did it: as his friends looked on in bemusement, Zack burst out laughing.

 

Kimberly's heart was in her throat as she waited for Tommy to join her in the garden. Though most of the plants were long dead and the rest of the garden had gone over to weeds, there were still stone benches to sit upon and low walls to provide a sense of privacy. She sat on one of those benches now, absentmindedly fiddling with the pink diamond set into the ring which she had worn every day since Zedd's defeat, and worrying over what she was going to tell her husband when he finally arrived.

The garden was set in an out of the way corner of the castle grounds and was as close to real privacy as Phaedos seemed to get. Unfortunately, its layout meant that she couldn't see Tommy coming until he practically stumbled over her.

"Kim? What is it?" he asked as she got up and approached him. "I got your message…"

"Tommy, we have to talk," she said, surprised to hear herself sound so calm. It was as if she hadn't been living in fear of this conversation for over a week now.

He cautiously agreed, but neither of them really seemed to know what to say, so they spent the better part of an hour wandering the garden's decrepit paths in silence. It was nice to be alone together, Kimberly reflected, without some imminent danger hanging over their heads. They'd been married for months now, but they had never really had a chance to just be newlyweds. Even when they finally made it home, they wouldn't have any time to themselves. Their duties would be waiting for them, among other things.

If she wanted to have this moment just between the two of them, it would have to be now or never. She could delay the confession no longer: "I think I'm pregnant."

Tommy stumbled in shock and nearly fell. Kimberly clutched his arm, clinging for dear life. "It's too early to be completely sure," she admitted.

"But you are," he guessed, looking at her with wide eyes.

She nodded slowly, waiting for him to realize the truth. And when he did, it was plainly written on his face. "But we haven't… Not since…"

She nodded again. "It must have happened before…"

Tommy gripped her hard by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. His eyes shone with what might have been tears. "You were pregnant when you –"

"I didn't know then!" she cut him off, desperate to reassure him that she hadn't knowingly put both herself and their future child at risk during the battle with Ivan Ooze. Calming herself, she said again, "I didn't know. Not until afterward."

"I know you didn't," he acknowledged. To her surprise, he did not seem angry. Instead, he seemed… elated. "I know that. It's just… Kim, this is wonderful!"

She laughed self-consciously. Wonderful was the last thing this was. They were far, far away from home, trying to help their friend establish himself as the leader of a kingdom – no, an empire – they had not even really believed in just a few months ago. She had nearly died destroying a force of great evil. For better or worse, she had tied Tommy's life to her own, and in the end she had given up much of her magic. She had no idea what effects any of that might have on her unborn child, though instinct told her the child was perfectly safe and well, unharmed by its mother's escapades.

She didn't realize she was crying until Tommy pulled her into his arms and kissed the tears away.

"Oh, Tommy, what are we going to do?" she asked. "Even if we started now, by the time we got home I'd be so huge I could barely walk…"

He obviously didn't believe her, and clearly did not share her concerns about the effects pregnancy would have on her physically. "I'll carry you if I have to," he promised.

The idea was so ridiculous that she couldn't help but laugh. And the worst part was he meant it.

"I'm being serious," he protested. "I'll get down on my knees and beg Erë to carry you if that's what it takes."

Kimberly grinned. "Now _there's_ an idea. I wonder how long it would take to get home a-dragonback," she mused.

Her senses had been dulled to the presence of magic since the fight with Ivan Ooze, but even she felt the magical release trickling through the air. Instinctively, she pulled in energy the way Dulcea had showed her so long ago, and was both surprised and pleased when a protective barrier formed around her and Tommy in response. Perhaps her magic had not entirely abandoned her, after all.

"What was that?" she asked.

Tommy's brow furrowed. Her barrier had been invisible; it was entirely possible he hadn't sensed it at all. "What was what?"

And then she felt it: the tangled knot of emotions roiling outward from… "Trini!"

Surprise dulled Tommy's instincts. She dropped her barrier, broke free of his embrace, and was halfway out of the garden before he began to run after her. Kimberly barely realized he was following at all. Her thoughts raced ahead as she sprinted toward the castle, thinking of a thousand possible reasons for Trini to have such a powerful emotional outburst.

In the end, she didn't care what the cause was. She only knew she had to be there for her friend, and do everything in her power to make this better.

 

Trini's head throbbed when she awoke. She only vaguely remembered fainting in the first place.

She shifted and groaned, wishing for the painless oblivion of sleep, and realized it was worse than she had first thought. She wasn't sure immediately where she was, but Jason was with her, wherever it was. She had no time to figure out what had been revealed to her before confronting her friends; she had to deal with him right now. Feeling somewhat sick, the realized that he'd brought her to the only place in Phaedos where he felt reasonably certain she would be safe. That place also happened to be his bedchamber.

Of course he wouldn't do the obvious thing and take her to the healers, where everyone could have crowded around her at once. Instead, he'd brought her here, and put a barred door between her and the friends that might have overwhelmed her. She wasn't sure whether she should be grateful that he'd spared her that, or embarrassed that she'd just woken up in his bed. And he wasn't going to give her any time to decide, once he noticed she was awake.

In some ways she was glad he was there with her. His presence was tremendously comforting, as it had been for so much of her life. But even as he was there, so were all the thoughts, the _memories_, which Dulcea had put into her head:

Mama, wearing a crown and a fine silk gown rich with gold embroidery. Papa, holding court with his vassals. Their faces had always been fuzzy in her mind's eye, but now they were as clear as if she had seen them only yesterday, even though she knew they must be more than ten years dead by now. And Li, the one who'd looked after her from childhood... he'd not been her doting uncle, as she had thought for so many years, but her devoted bodyguard. He'd kept her safe until the day he, too, crossed into the otherworld, and she hadn't even realized it. Tears pricked her eyes as she remembered herself: four years old, the only daughter of the King and Queen of Taye, the jewel of the realm. Her life had been perfect until the old sorcerer showed up one day and took her away. She hadn't realized until now that he had also locked away her memories and made her into the person she had always thought she was.

She was no longer sure who she was. Was she Trini, handmaiden to Queen Kimberly, or was she Trini, Princess of Taye? It hardly seemed it could be real, even as she knew without a doubt that it was. But if it was true, and she was really a princess, she had still been raised as a handmaid and knew next to nothing about her homeland. She hadn't the faintest idea how to be a princess, much less a Princess of Taye. Was there any way to reconcile the two truths of her identity? It seemed like her head might burst just thinking about it, and she rather wished Dulcea had left well enough alone.

Taye had gotten along without its Princess for all these years, and it would continue to get along without her for the foreseeable future. The country had been sealed to outsiders almost as long as she had been alive; she realized now that it had been sealed off by magic just after Zordon spirited her and Li out of the country and to safety with Kimberly's family. Sealed to protect it from the looming threat of Ivan Ooze. She remembered the name now, something she'd heard only in hushed whispers as a child and had forgotten completely in the time since then. But she had not merely forgotten: she had been _forced_ to forget. More of Zordon's handiwork, no doubt.

She groaned and buried her face in her hands. This was too much.

"Trini, it'll be all right," Jason promised.

He was wrong, she was sure of it. She shook her head and knew she needed to explain what had happened, that he must be completely at a loss and worried sick about her. She didn't know where to start. And then she did. "I don't want to be anybody's pawn anymore, Jason."

"You won't." She knew he meant what he said with his whole heart. And she also knew that as Emperor of Phaedos and wielder of the Sword of Power, with the fiery dragon Hrag at his back, he had the power to make sure that happened. She could have cried from sheer relief.

He stretched out on the bed beside her and tugged her into his arms. The steady sound of his heartbeat and the warm strength he radiated could almost convince her that everything was all right again. She wished they could stay like that forever. Unfortunately, she knew they couldn't. "I'm not who you think I am," she said into his shoulder.

"I don't care," he said bluntly.

"I'm not who _I _thought I was."

"Still don't care," he told her. He'd planted one of his hands against her back, rubbing gently and shifting her against him. Now, he nuzzled his face against her neck, a combination that was entirely too distracting.

"Are you even listening to me?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter who your parents were, or whatever it is Dulcea unlocked in your mind," he insisted. "Nothing will change how I feel about you."

She clung to him a moment, unsure how he would take the news. "Jason, I'm a princess."

He pulled back to look at her, then broke into a wide grin. "I'd say that sounds about perfect."

Exasperated, she admitted, "I don't know the first thing about being a princess!"

He actually laughed at that. "Trini, you know _everything_ about being a princess." She glared at him for dismissing her fears so easily. "You were _always_ with Kim when she was learning how to rule a kingdom." His expression told her he'd just now realized why the princess's handmaid had been allowed to attend all her lessons with her. Trini had just had the same revelation, herself. All of the things she had inexplicably been allowed to do, to study, when any other serving girl would have been refused… She'd simply never given it any thought before – more warding, no doubt. "You taught her everything she knows about being a rational and honorable ruler."

He was right, of course, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"What am I going to do?" she asked.

"Whatever you want."

She fixed him with her most skeptical look.

"Don't give me that look!" he said, his tone almost teasing. "You know Kim and I will support you no matter what you choose to do."

She nodded and let him pull her close again. "I know that. It's just… _I_ know what I remember, but how will I convince anyone else? What good does it do for me to know my parents were…" She could still picture them, their faces so _clear_ after all these years. "I have no proof, I only have these memories that I'm not sure I even want!" She sighed. "Why do this? Why _now_?"

"You'll have to ask Dulcea about that." Jason sounded about as enthused as Trini felt.

"For now," she began, "can we just stay here?"

"As my lady commands," Jason said in the most obnoxiously chivalrous tone he could manage. Trini rolled her eyes heartily but let him pull her close for a kiss anyway. His hand was warm and strong where it cupped the back of her head, and his kiss was sweet enough to make up for his teasing earlier.

She'd been so frightened that her friends would feel betrayed by her revelation. Jason's unerring acceptance went a long way toward abating those fears. She practically melted into him, feeling the tension at last begin to seep out of her.

And then a sudden furious pounding on the door rattled her all over again. She and Jason both looked to the door, but he motioned for silence. Trini was only too happy to obey. She didn't exactly feel like dealing with anyone else right now.

"Jason, let me in," Kimberly demanded, her voice loud and clearly unhappy.

Jason stubbornly refused to respond. Trini grinned, vividly picturing Kimberly's ire.

"I know you're in there. And Trini had better be with you." Kimberly paused, then added dangerously, if quietly, "And you better not be doing anything I wouldn't do."

At that, realizing that Kimberly was not going to simply go away, Jason rolled away from Trini and buried his face in his hands with a groan. "Why me?"

Trini suppressed a giggle and patted his shoulder consolingly. Maybe if they still didn't say much of anything, Kimberly would take the hint and be on her way.

No such luck. "Jason, if you don't open this door right now, so help me I will _burn it down_."

"You better let her in," Trini murmured.

To his credit, he did as he was told, but not before stealing one last kiss from Trini. Not that she was complaining.

Kimberly burst into the room as soon as he had undone the lock, ignoring the fact that she had nearly smacked the heavy wooden door right into the Emperor of Phaedos. She paid no attention at all to Jason as he secured the door again behind her. The only thing she seemed to care about right now was Trini. She all but leaped onto the bed beside her friend and flung her arms around her. "Trini, are you all right?" she demanded breathlessly.

"Yes," Trini assured her, wondering how Kimberly had known something was wrong in the first place. Kim had been nowhere to be seen when Dulcea had undone the wards and freed her memories. By all rights she shouldn't have had a clue yet that anything was amiss. Unless someone had gone out of their way to find and inform her, that was. "Well, mostly…"

But Kimberly did not hear her. Her face had abruptly glazed over with pain and she all but collapsed against Trini. "Kim!"

It faded almost as quickly as it had come. Kimberly pushed herself upright again and frowned. "What in the world was that?" Her eyes went huge. "Trini…"

Trini looked away.

"Trini, what is going on? Why do I suddenly…" She blinked several times in rapid succession. "It all makes sense now!"

Trini binked right back at her. She had no idea what to say, much less what it was that suddenly made sense to her friend. "Kimberly… Could you start at the beginning please?"

"During the battle with Ivan Ooze," Kimberly began, "I saw something. A vision that had to do with you, only it didn't make any sense until just now." Trini stared at her, filled with apprehension. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what Kimberly had seen.

Kimberly frowned. "Damn, those wards were good. I didn't even sense them until now. Zordon really knew what he was doing."

"Kim, you're babbling," Trini pointed out.

"All right," Jason interrupted with every ounce of imperiousness he possessed. "Someone explain to me what is going on."

Rather than responding with her typical royal stubbornness, Kimberly sighed. "I suppose you should hear it, too." She let Trini go and moved so she was sitting next to her on the bed. "When I was done fighting Ooze, I… somehow, I ended up outside of my body. I could _fly_. And I could see things that I couldn't see before." She paused, trying to collect her own thoughts. "And that meant I could see, I don't know what they were."

Trini waited patiently. It wasn't the first time Kimberly had had trouble putting her experiences with magic into words, and Trini sympathized.

"I sensed great powers," Kimberly explained at last. "And I could _see_ their connections to everyone. I could see how we were all being pushed and manipulated. We were – _are_, I don't know – chained to them by these silver chains. And each chain represented a connection or a push or whatever it was." She regarded Trini with sober eyes. "We all had some, but I couldn't even count how many of them were connected to you. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out why they would be trying so damn hard to manipulate you."

Sympathy was rapidly turning to horror in Trini's heart. Was there more to it even than she had suspected?

"It's because you were more than you seemed. They were hiding you until the time was right and it was safe for you to take your rightful place. They brought you to a place where you would be protected." She paused again, biting her lower lip as she debated whether or not to continue. The gesture told Trini that this was one of those things she just knew without knowing _how_ she knew, and that it was something she wasn't entirely confident in sharing just yet. But she forged ahead anyway. "They brought you to where you'd meet Jason. They made you into the catalyst that would push him to go after Ooze. And now you'll help him bring peace to the world by uniting your kingdoms and forging alliances with mine."

Without knowing entirely why, Trini found herself on the brink of tears again. It felt like her heart had just been torn open all over again. "Are you saying that the gods, or whatever these powers were, _made_ me and Jason…"

Kimberly shook her head. "I don't think… I have to believe they can't control us that far. But they could nudge things along by putting you in a place where you could get to know each other, and me."

It still sounded far from good to Trini. Had every decision that she'd ever made been decided for her in advance? Was she – were they _all_ – nothing more than pawns for the gods' games?

"Trini, look at me," Kimberly said. How odd for her to be the calm one while Trini felt perched on the brink of a breakdown. "I think what the gods, or whatever they are, wanted was for Ivan Ooze to be defeated. I think they wanted to bring peace to our world, so they set things up for that to happen. Beyond that, your choices are your own."

It would have been more comforting if Trini weren't so easily able to read between the lines. Kimberly wasn't sure of any of this. She was simply determined to believe that it was so because the alternative was awful. And Trini had no choice but to believe her, because the alternative was unthinkable.

"Come on," Kimberly urged. "You're getting what you want. We all are. Let's just accept that for right now and question the principles of the universe later."

If only it could be so easy.


	49. A Long Way to Go

Everyone in the Castle Phaedos was so busy with preparations for the upcoming journey that no one noticed Kimberly slip away. It was a good thing, too. Now that her pregnancy had begun to show, her friends had a tendency to coddle her as if she were made of fine glass and might break at the slightest touch. If they had seen her steal out of the stables with one of the horses, if they had realized what she intended to do, they probably would have forbidden it outright. Or worse, insisted on going with her.

It wasn't as if she had far to go. The great dragon Hrag still lurked near the castle, staying a few scant miles away so as not to overly alarm the Phaedans. Erë was nearby still, too, but Kimberly could not have said where. The ice dragon was far more solitary than her fiery cousin, and preferred not to keep so close a watch on her human chosen.

Hrag spotted her a long way off and was waiting for her when she arrived at the top of a small rise. She left her horse below so it wouldn't panic in the dragon's presence, and approached on foot.

_Hello, Kimberly Hart,_ the dragon said when she had drawn close enough, his voice a deep and pleasant rumble in her mind.

"Hello again, Hrag," she said, smiling in spite of herself. She couldn't help feeling a genuine fondness for the fire dragon, however strange it seemed. Sometimes it felt like she'd known him her whole life, like he'd been the dragon in all her childhood tales. "I'm sorry to burden you with something like this, since it seems my warriors are Erë's chosen…" Tommy and Zack might be sworn to Erë's service, but Kimberly felt increasingly drawn to the fire dragon instead. "But I was hoping you could answer some questions I had."

_Ask_, came the answering rumble.

Now that she had his permission to ask, she was suddenly afraid to do so. "If I told you what I remembered from the day I fought Ivan Ooze… would you be able to tell me what it meant? If it meant anything at all…"

_Erë and I both saw what you did. We both know what happened,_ Hrag confirmed.

"Then tell me!" she blurted out.

The dragon made a sound that might have been a laugh, a deep rumbling that made her chest ache. _You wish to know what happened when you slipped free of your mortal body, do you not?_

"Yes!"

_You touched the edge of infinity,_ he said at last, as if that explained anything. Kimberly waited for an explanation, but none was forthcoming.

"What does that mean?" she asked finally, when it became apparent that Hrag would not tell her more of his own accord.

_You are aware of the duality of worlds, yes?_ She nodded, having some basic understanding of what this meant, and Hrag went on, _The mortal world and the spirit world are kept separate except at very specific points. _This made sense to Kimberly, who had already heard the story of the Ninjetti warriors' spirit world journeys from Aisha. _You created a new passage between the worlds. Your clash with Ivan Ooze, coupled with the Sword of Power's mere presence, threatened to tear the worlds asunder at that spot, unleashing wild magic into the mortal world._

Kimberly's brow furrowed, a connection forming in her mind. "Does all magic come from the spirit world? I didn't know what it was, but I felt power pouring out of that rip…"

_Yes._

So she'd been right when she thought she felt something tear, and suddenly she understood - truly understood - where that flood of unstoppable power had come from. It had come pouring into her right out of the spirit world, the source of all magic, through the gateway she and Ooze had inadvertently formed. The gateway she'd then, instinctively, tried to go through.

"My friends were able to pass into the spirit world using the gate underneath the castle at Phaedos," she murmured. "How come I couldn't go through? Not when I tried to go through that passageway I made, at least…" She trailed off, thinking. Tommy said they'd been able to bring her back to Phaedos by teleporting through the spirit world, and that had obviously worked. "Did I mess something up when I created it?"

_The two are unrelated,_ Hrag assured her, _but I can explain. Ordinarily the worlds are separated by a barrier. It is not mundane and it is not magical, it is made of something else that is beyond the knowledge of beings both mortal and spirit. It is beyond even the full understanding of dragons. It is sometimes known among the dragons as the edge of infinity… or the place where the gods dwell._

Kimberly's blood ran cold. Somehow she had known without knowing exactly what that edge was. She remembered vividly the rage she'd felt at being denied the infinite. And falling -

She struggled against the resurgent rage, tried to focus on the rest of what Hrag had just told her. She'd lived her life believing vaguely in some all-powerful beings that controlled various aspects of human life, simply because her parents had told her that was the way the world was, but she'd never seriously considered the possibility that such beings could actually exist. Despite what she had seen and felt during her brush with the spirit world, she had still wanted to believe that her destiny was her own and that gods were merely a figment of her imagination, or something more like powerful cosmic forces than all-powerful deities.

She trusted Hrag, but at the same time wanted desperately to reject everything he'd just told her, and all the implications that went along with it.

_When you attempted to go into the spirit world, you touched that edge, rather than passing through one of the ancient gateways. Even dragons hesitate to approach the edge of infinity directly. You were not ready. If not for Erë's intervention, it might have destroyed you._

"Erë… saved me?" She remembered the ice dragon intervening, but at the time it had seemed that Erë was attacking in anger, hurling her down from the heavens in rage.

Hrag chuckled. _You are beloved of her chosen champion, whatever she may think of you. Do you think we dragons do not understand love?_

Kimberly had indeed assumed exactly that, but she wasn't about to admit it to Hrag. "I thought it was because she knew I'd bound Tommy's life to mine," she admitted. "And she didn't want him to die because of me."

_Since it is Erë we are talking about, you may be right,_ Hrag mused. _She has often been the most selfish and petty of the dragons._

Almost before she realized what she was doing, Kimberly asked, "Hrag, how many of the great dragons are there?"

_There are four of the great dragons. Hrag of the fire. Erë of the ice. Yrian of the earth. Linne of the waters._

Kimberly had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach again as Hrag confirmed her half-conceived fears. "Is there any reason to think there might one day be more dragons than just four?"

_There are legends known only among the four dragons, prophecies handed down from the edge of infinity in the days when we were brave enough to venture there, that speak of the rise of a fifth guardian one day. In truth, Erë and I suspected that such a guardian might arise out of your battle with Ivan Ooze._

"He said something about that," she admitted, "when we were fighting. I didn't know what he meant… you mean it wasn't just nonsense?"

_How he learned of this prophecy, I do not know. Nonetheless, it exists._

She was almost afraid to ask, but not knowing was worse. "During the battle, did you think Ooze would become the next… guardian, he called it? Or did you think…"

If a dragon could have grinned, Hrag would have grinned then and there. _You. Without a doubt, it would have been you._

He sounded so utterly certain that for a moment she stared at him in confusion. "Me?"

_You have a dragon's spirit, though you are tiny and mortal,_ he told her. _And you have a dragon's blood, however diluted._

"Um, Hrag? What are you talking about?" He couldn't be serious about that, could he?

The great head dropped lower to gaze at her from her level. _Bryndis Hart's daughter, your grandmother many times removed, was not born of mortal man, but of my fires._

Kimberly thought she might faint. What Hrag had revealed couldn't possibly be true. Bryndis Hart had been married. She'd had a husband she loved very much, who had ruled beside her as King until her death and their daughter's ascension to the throne. She knew, she'd heard the story her whole life. Although, she realized now, that the version of the tale that had been handed down to her was missing a lot.

But how could they possibly have left out something like this? Unless they'd never known at all… How many secrets had her family been hiding all these years?

Remembering now what Hrag had said earlier, she murmured, "You loved her, didn't you? All those years ago. That's why you stayed to guard the Sword. That's why you helped Jason… and me."

Hrag did not answer at first. Instead he shifted, shrinking and changing until before her stood not a dragon, but a man. He was perhaps the most strikingly beautiful man she had ever seen, with the possible exception of Tommy Oliver, his dark brown eyes seeming to burn with inner fire. Dark brown eyes that were so much like her own.

_He can change his form to whatever he wants,_ she told herself furiously, but somehow she knew this was the same form he had used when he came to Bryndis Hart a thousand years ago. "Why show me this?" she demanded. "Why now?"

"Before you leave Phaedos, you should know the whole truth of your history," he told her. His voice made her knees go weak; small wonder Bryndis hadn't been able to resist him.

"But," she began to protest.

"In the years to come, you may need to know," he said, as if it were that simple.

He returned then to his dragon form, another effortless expenditure of magic. And though she'd thought she had nothing else to ask him, she suddenly remembered something she'd wanted to ask before they got sidetracked talking about love and history. She found herself saying, "What about my magic? It's been… wrong ever since the final battle. And even from the beginning it's been, well, _weird_. Nothing about it makes sense! Every time I think I understand it, something changes."

_Your magic, like my fires, is a living thing_, Hrag explained. _It is wild, but tameable. Left to its own devices, it grows in unpredictable ways._

"Like changing so that her ancestors can no longer wear Bryndis's crown?" she asked wryly. Ever since anyone could remember, Kings had worn the holy crown and Queens a crown free of enchantment, but Kimberly now knew that the holy crown had originally belonged to Bryndis, though she was not depicted wearing it in any of the official portraits and there was no mention of it in any of the tales. She'd seen it, in the dragon's dream.

_Yes. It changes and grows as it sees fit, without regard for the desires of mortals. That is the true nature of magic._

"Will my power ever return? I can still sense magic, but I can't really…" She couldn't finish that thought, it was too painful. She'd never wanted magic to begin with, but the thought that it could be taken from her was hard to bear. What if the bulk of her power was gone forever, and she or her friends needed it again someday? What if she'd made a huge mistake in not seizing as much of that power as she could?

_That, I cannot say_, Hrag sounded almost apologetic. _Your power may yet be fully rekindled with time, or it may remain dormant for the rest of your life. But you have caught some of it in that gem of yours, and that, I think, will remain constant for the rest of your mortal lifespan. If you can learn to use it the way your companions use their gems, you may be able to use at least that much of your power to its fullest potential once more._

Kimberly left Hrag behind that afternoon feeling no wiser than she had when she crept out of Phaedos that morning, and a good deal more bewildered. It felt like he'd only answered her questions with more questions, even though she knew he had told her as much as he'd dared and had been as honest as he could.

Still, a dragon's daughter?

That was the last thing she'd thought to hear today.

 

They left Phaedos amid much pomp and circumstance, or at least as much as the impoverished empire could muster on such short notice. They: Jason, in his first official move as Emperor; Trini and Zack, as a matter of course, though the Phaedans had not yet been made aware that Trini was coming along as Jason's promised bride, rather than merely as an adviser; Rocky, Adam, and Aisha as Kimberly's emissaries; and an entire contingent of the most exalted and important Phaedans, plus all of their servants and assistants and families.

All things considered, it felt a little strange to be making the trip without some of their closest companions. Billy and Katherine were staying behind to continue work on the mess that was Zedd's paperwork, and Kimberly and Tommy would be joining them later thanks to Erë's promised assistance. Kimberly had wanted to join them, but with her pregnancy growing more obvious by the day, Tommy hadn't been willing to risk it. He had insisted that they make the journey by dragon instead. And that had been a squabble worth watching; just remembering it made Aisha smile.

They were going to be okay, the two of them. Aisha was sure of it now.

As for the rest of their little group of adventurers… it was going to take forever to make the journey home on foot and in such a large group, but with each day out from Phaedos Aisha's spirits soared higher. Her companions were less thrilled to be on the road just before winter, especially when their other friends would be making the same journey by dragonback, or when they themselves could have simply teleported back, but Aisha didn't even mind the deepening cold. They were going _home_.

For a while there, she hadn't really been expecting to ever see home again; it had seemed that somewhere her luck would run out, the forces of evil would triumph, and she would see her last sunrise. And yet despite the odds, Kimberly and Jason had emerged from their trials victorious. A great force of evil had been put to rest, and it felt to Aisha almost as if a great weight had been lifted from the world. The sunrises seemed somehow brighter, the nights more gentle… or maybe it was just that she was living without fear for the first time in ages.

Without fear, and without very many responsibilities. In some ways it felt like the carefree years she'd spent at the DeSantos manor with Rocky and Adam, but in others… She worried about leaving Kimberly behind, even knowing that Tommy and Dulcea and even Kat and Billy would be there to take care of her. She missed the good friend she'd made in her Queen even as she finally found the chance to get to know Trini better.

And she worried about Zack. His brush with death had changed him. Aisha hadn't known him for very long before they parted ways, but she remembered him as a bold and brave knight with a jovial nature, always quick with a quip or a joke. Those things had not changed, but there was a somberness in his eyes now that hadn't been there before. And even though Jason had granted him the highest possible honors, promoting him officially to second-in-command, before departing on this quest, Aisha had a feeling Zack was even happier to be going home than she was.

But once they had well and truly left Phaedos behind them, even those worries began to fade. It seemed to Aisha that all of them were regaining pieces of themselves they had lost with each day that passed. Zack once again made jokes whenever something caught his fancy, while Rocky joined right in. Adam and Trini looked on in quiet exasperation, and Jason forged the path forward for them all, pointedly ignoring every good-natured barb that Zack and Rocky threw his way - and occasionally giving as good as he got. Even though they spent day after endless day crossing unknown territory, with no real idea of what lay ahead, Aisha would almost have called this happiness.

It seemed that an eternity passed in this way, even though it couldn't have been more than several weeks, before they again found themselves on the shores of that narrow inlet of sea that separated home from Phaedos. Strangely, Aisha had seen no sign of the enormous cliffs that they'd had to descend on their way into Phaedos. She wondered if they'd simply managed to miss them this time around, or if something might have happened to them. Could the entire empire have risen again with Zedd's demise? Had the cliffs had something to do with his magical dominion over the realm all along? The questions were tantalizing.

But Dulcea had stayed behind in Phaedos, so Aisha's questions went unanswered.

They camped one night by the seashore, and Aisha slept in the open sandwiched between Rocky and Adam, warm blankets heaped over all three of them, watching the stars and wondering how things were going back home and how Kimberly and Tommy and the others were doing in Phaedos.

After that they headed south, skirting along the sea but never directly following the shore. The vegetation and wildlife grew more plentiful the further they got from Phaedos, and they were able to replenish their supplies by hunting as they went along. Without any trouble at all, they passed through bits of Taye and other countries whose names Aisha did not know.

Somehow she did know, without needing to be told, when they had set foot again within Kimberly's kingdom. If there had ever been a barrier here separating it from the land they'd been crossing, which Rocky's map told her must be the northernmost reaches of Taye, that barrier was indeed gone.

If any of that troubled Trini, she gave no outward sign.

They began to encounter people again soon after that, earning looks of astonishment when they told their tale – and looks of concern and dark grumbling when it was noticed that Kimberly and Tommy had not returned with the rest. Assurances that the King and Queen were on their way did little to set things right, and Aisha began to worry about what they would find when they finally got back to the capital.

"We've been gone a long time," she remarked to Rocky one evening as they ate dinner at a roadside inn. "A lot could have happened since we left."

The next day he dispatched messengers to the DeSantos estate and the family holding in the capital city, but the days crept by with no response. They were traveling openly, not bothering to disguise who they were or what they were doing, so surely word must have reached the capital already, and yet no envoys came to meet them on the road, either. No celebrations met them on the road, though the common folk seemed happy enough to see them.

When Aisha asked Jason what he thought of all that, he merely set his jaw and shrugged and refused to consider the idea that anything had gone horribly wrong in their absence. But Trini was always at his side these days, and Aisha could see the worry growing in her eyes. It only made her feel a little better to know Jason was just putting on a strong front for the benefit of the Phaedans.

They couldn't know what lay ahead of them as they drew closer and closer to home, but Aisha had a feeling they had better be ready for anything.

 

The Castle Phaedos seemed lonely without Billy's friends, or even most of the Phaedan nobles, to give it life. As its inhabitants departed, albeit temporarily, it seemed to Billy as if the castle quickly began to return to its old empty lifelessness and gloom. Still, there was much work to be done, and someone had to stay behind and see that it was done. And that someone was him. He simply didn't trust the Phaedans to take care of it in his absence and, frankly, he wasn't needed back home just yet. Sure, there were mysteries to solve back in the royal archives, but those could wait.

The mysteries yet to be uncovered, and maybe even solved, amid the masses of Zedd's belongings, were far more intriguing to Billy right now. There was so much to _know_, so much to discover, and he would be the first mortal man in a thousand years to know any of it.

And yet it still felt lonely, knowing that Jason and Trini and most of the others were far away by now, out on the road somewhere, heading back to the place he'd once called home. Was it still home now, after everything he'd done and seen? He was somewhat surprised to find that he wasn't sure.

When he embarked on this quest, he had been certain of two things: that it would be an arduous and dangerous journey, and that he would profoundly miss his home. The former had turned out to be even more true than he had thought. The latter, however...

The world was so much wider and so much more interesting than the archives back home, that dungeon-like basement beneath the great castle with its thousands of books and manuscripts and its years of history. For the first time in his life, Billy found himself wondering if perhaps he ought to be out in the world instead of safeguarding the written record of it.

"Hey Billy, look at this!" Katherine's voice drifted over to him, though he couldn't see her amid the piles of papers and books that were stacked all around. The excitement in that voice made the loneliness in his heart disappear.

He might have chosen to stay miles and months from home regardless of what his friends decided to do, but Katherine had chosen to stay, too. Somehow he'd expected her to leave, to choose the warm safety of the familiar over the everyday reminder of the harrowing journey she had endured and the welter of unfamiliar faces all around, but she'd chosen to stay instead. He hadn't told her, but Billy was glad. Having his longtime friend and partner with him made this place almost feel right.

It was far from home, but it was close enough for now.

 

The first thing Zack noticed when he crept through the deserted early morning streets of the royal capital was that it looked for all the world as if the kingdom were in chaos. Even the castle seemed emptier than usual, but maybe that was just because it was early still, or because he'd been gone for so long. He spent several minutes staring up at the dark, familiar shape before he realized that the guards on duty at the gate looked like they'd seen a ghost.

Then again, they pretty much had.

But to their credit, they let him in anyway and he didn't have to go round to Angela's and sneak in through the secret tunnel again. Although, he thought, it might have been more fun to see Angela again than deal with official business. But Kimberly had entrusted him with this job, so he was going to do it no matter what.

What had been merely ominous from outside was downright concerning within the castle. It looked like half a war had been fought inside. The whole place was unkempt, most of the priceless paintings and tapestries were askew in their places – or outright missing – and a couple even looked to have been _singed_.

Zack paused in his tracks and stared.

He guessed it was a good thing Kimberly and Tommy had decided to send him on ahead to make sure things were ready for their return. Because things were definitely not ready. Suddenly it was no wonder that they'd not heard back from any of their emissaries.

"What in the world happened here?" he asked aloud. There was no one to answer him, just the dimly burning torches in their decorative sconces, so he left the entryway behind and headed for his old quarters. He had plenty of other things to do today, but he wanted to see his old familiar rooms first, almost to reassure himself that he was actually here, actually standing in his old home again after everything that had happened.

Everything in his old chambers was exactly as he'd left it, down the fire burning low in the bedroom hearth, except for one thing: the bedchamber was occupied. He was mildly annoyed by this at first – were they truly that short on space in the castle these days? – until he realized just who was using his bed. And then he couldn't help but grin.

"Wake up, sleepy head," he said quietly.

Angela jolted awake and bit off a scream. And when she saw who had interrupted her sleep, she screamed in earnest.

"You want to wake up the whole castle?" he asked when she was done.

"Zack?" Her eyes were huge as she stared at him. "Is it really you?"

"In the flesh," he told her. "I didn't realize I'd been gone long enough for them to start renting my room."

"They didn't," she responded, some of her usual fire returning to her tone. And then she realized that he'd just caught her sleeping in his bed and looked mortally embarrassed. "It's just… I've been helping Lord Scott lately and it's easier to stay in the castle." And yet somehow it was more convenient to stay here than in the rooms reserved for her family? Zack grinned. Grudgingly, she added, "And I missed you, okay?"

"I'm glad someone did," he told her earnestly. The thought that he might never see her again had been one of his biggest regrets out there in the wasteland that surrounded Ivan Ooze's castle. "There are about a thousand other things I'd rather talk about right now, but what the hell happened while I was gone?"

"Let me get dressed first, and then we'll talk."

She could have worn a burlap sack and he would still have thought she looked beautiful, but he let her have her way. He had all day; Kimberly and the others were planning to make their grand return at noon tomorrow, so he wasn't exactly in a rush.

After Angela had made herself presentable, she went in search of a servant. Zack trailed along behind her, watching in bemusement as she immediately sent the sleepy young man for Lord Scott. "Tell him Zack Taylor is here to see him," she said. "We'll be waiting in the audience hall." He disappeared in a hurry.

Zack and Angela took their time walking round to the audience hall. Angela kept sneaking glances his way the whole time, and he was glad Kimberly had insisted they all invest in new clothes for the grand return. He'd have hated for Angela to see him as he'd looked when Kimberly and Tommy rescued him from the snow, all tattered and frozen, or after trekking hundreds of miles cross-country on the way home.

"Everything was fine for a long time," Angela said at last. She sighed, as if reliving painful memories. "But the some of the Councilors eventually started wondering if Kimberly would ever come back. They were impatient. And more importantly, they were loud. They wanted to know when trade with Taye would officially be reopened. They wanted to move forward with their own plans, especially the ones Kimberly never approved of."

Zack didn't like hearing any of this, but he wasn't surprised. If they couldn't sneak things past their inexperienced Queen, they would definitely try to turn things to their advantage in her absence. "And how has Lord Scott handled all of this?"

"As best he can." Angela looked away. Zack took her hand in his and squeezed reassuringly. "But after a while some of them decided they didn't accept him as regent any longer. There was a contingent that said… that said Kimberly wasn't fit to rule in the first place, that it was obvious because she'd fled so quickly after her coronation, and so her choice of regent meant nothing. They've been undermining his authority for the better part of two months now… At first the balance was in Kimberly's favor, but…"

"But?"

"The people are starting to think she's not coming back, or so these Councilors say. And they're not sure they want a Scott for a king."

Jonathan Scott didn't want to be King anymore than his son had, but Zack knew most people had no way of knowing that. They saw only that their Queen and King were gone, and that Lord Scott had conveniently seized power. To those that opposed him, Kimberly's decree would have meant little, or less.

"I knew it was a bad idea not to return immediately," Zack muttered. "I _told_ her…"

Angela's expression brightened considerably. "Kimberly is really on her way back? We'd heard the rumors, but didn't want things to get any more out of hand than they already are."

"She's planning to show up tomorrow," he admitted. "At high noon." The rest of her grandiose plan she'd kept from him and everyone else, but that much he knew.

"She's not going to be happy about this," Angela said ruefully.

"No, she's not," Jonathan Scott agreed.

Zack turned to greet Jason's father, and then forgot how to speak when he saw who was with Lord Scott. Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch, of all people, flanked Lord Scott in the doorway to the audience hall.

"I may have forgotten to mention that Lord Scott found some unlikely allies," Angela whispered sheepishly.

_No kidding,_ Zack thought. He could hardly picture the likes of Bulk and Skull helping maintain peace in the realm, and yet… they obviously had done just that. It was strange to think he'd underestimated them all these years, thinking they were little more than troublemaking buffoons, but at the same time he was glad that they'd turned out to be more heroic than he ever thought. They'd been a thorn in his side for years, but when the kingdom needed them, they'd both stepped up to the challenge.

"You say she's returning tomorrow?" Lord Scott went on, his tone thoughtful. "That doesn't give us much time to finish getting this place in shape. I've been working on it, but…" He shrugged eloquently. "Not everyone has been on my side. There's still some riffraff lurking about."

"Sounds like we've got our work cut out for us then," Zack said, trying hard to sound optimistic in spite of his doubts. Kimberly was returning tomorrow whether they were ready for her or not, so they would have to be ready.

As he joined Angela, Bulk, Skull, and Lord Scott at the conference table that occupied one end of the audience hall, Zack couldn't suppress a sigh. It was going to be a long day.

 

It was a cold, misty morning when Jason walked through the gate and into his parents' city home. The yard was glittering with frost, empty and foreboding in the predawn gloom. Trini was a reassuring presence at his side and he reminded himself that he had wanted to avoid all the fanfare that would surely come when word of his return – and that of the King and Queen – went through the city later that morning.

He and Trini would officially enter the city at noon, along with Kimberly, Tommy, and all the others. But right now he wanted some private time (despite the amused insinuations Zack had been making over the last several weeks of the journey) to think.

He had not been expecting to find anyone at home, both because of the early hour and because he expected both of his parents to be up at the castle. He was intensely curious to hear about how his father's stint as regent had gone, and he hadn't realized just how homesick he was until he found himself standing in the doorway to the old family townhouse with Trini at his side. For an instant it felt as if nothing had changed since he left. It might have been only yesterday, or a lifetime ago.

And then his mother bustled into the kitchen where Jason and Trini stood in the doorway, a robe hastily pulled on over her nightdress. The moment she saw her son, excitement and relief overwhelmed the drowsiness still obvious on her face, and the next thing he knew she had flung herself into his waiting arms. "Jason! My son..."

He squeezed her tight and said nothing, surprised at how overcome he felt at finally coming home after all that had happened in the past months. When he let her go, she turned with a smile to embrace his companion. "And Trini."

She whispered something that made Trini blush and nod, a response that brought a smile to her face. Ushering them both into the kitchen and to the large table therein, she said, "You must tell me everything that has happened."

And they did. At some point during the tale, the cook bustled into the kitchen and built the hearthfire back up and set about making the day's bread, along with breakfast for Isabella and her two visitors.

When the tale was told, even the truth of Trini's birthright, Isabella's face betrayed no surprise. She merely leaned back in her chair and looked thoughtful for a long moment.

"You knew," Trini murmured. "All this time, you knew?"

Jason's mother smiled gently. "You, we knew about. The rest? We suspected, but could not know for certain."

Jason frowned. "Then why didn't you and Dad come with us? We could have used your help…"

"And if Kimberly had not asked that we stay, we would have," she assured him. "But as unknowing as it was, we could see even then that there was some wisdom in our Queen's request." It had never occurred to Jason that his parents might have had their own reasons for agreeing so quickly to Kimberly's request that they stay behind and rule in her place. It certainly had not occurred to him that they might be hedging against his own potential death on this quest. And he wasn't sure he liked the implication now that it had occurred to him.

"In case Jason died…" Trini murmured, her voice thick with horror as she came to the same realization that Jason had.

"And because Kimberly was right: the kingdom did need a capable ruler in her stead, and there was none better suited than my husband." She looked calmly at both of them, her face an unreadable mask. She always had that look on her face when she was trying to hide strong emotion. "We discussed the possibilities at length when Jason first came forward with the scabbard. We had seen hints of what the existence of such a weapon might mean over the years, and we had uncovered some unsettling mysteries about the family heritage recently. We knew what might happen if Jason pursued the sword."

"I don't get it. Why did Ooze never go after you and Dad?" Jason asked, shaking his head. If Ivan Ooze had known that Jason and his father were descendents of Aidan Drake, if he'd even suspected… why hadn't he acted until after Jason obtained the scabbard? He could have destroyed them at any time from afar, and no one would have been the wiser. He'd certainly had the power to do it... Whatever game he'd been playing, Jason had little hope of ever understanding it now. "He acted like he'd accounted for everything, like my death would mean his ultimate victory…"

"Your father was never a threat, and it seems that even Ivan Ooze knew that." She shook her head. "He must have had spies everywhere… Your father may have earned the title of Knight, but he was never a fighter the way you were. He is a diplomat, through and through. He'd have been a scholar if he could have gotten away with it, but the family honor demanded that he become a knight instead." She paused, smiling fondly. "He wants to _know_ things, he wants to see the world, to understand everything and everyone that he can. I think, if it had come down to him, he would have been content merely to keep the scabbard in one of his collections and never to act upon the knowledge he had of it until he knew for certain there was no other way."

She looked at her son and could not hide the emotion in her eyes. "But you… You never could leave well enough alone. I am only glad that you found your way back home safe and sound."

From this he gathered that if she and his father had indeed made plans in case this journey should lead to his death, they would never tell him what those plans might have been. At first he thought that his parents could be even more exasperating than Kimberly, but he could grudgingly admit that he would rather not know. However glad his parents were to find out that he'd survived, he was happier.

"What will you do now?" Isabella asked, turning to Trini.

"I don't know," she admitted. "There are so many things we still need to do, and so many paths that are open to us now. I think, in the end, we'll figure things out… but for now, we still have a long way to go."

"Whatever you choose to do, Trini, know that you have our support." Isabella rose from the table then and disappeared through the doorway into the main house.

Trini glanced to Jason, but he could only shrug. He hadn't the least idea what his mother had in mind.

She returned a short while later with a carefully maintained wooden box in her arms. It was not overly large, but it looked as if it had been hidden in the back of some storage room for many years.

As soon as she placed it on the table and opened it, Jason realized it looked like that because it _had_ spent years hidden in the back of some storage room. Preserved within that box were the artifacts of Trini's childhood: the plain but finely crafted dress she must have worn on her journey, her princess's tiara and jewels, and even the secret correspondence between her parents, Zordon, and the King and Queen. The entire conspiracy was laid out there for all to see.

All the proof that Trini would need to prove her real identity, should she choose to pursue her Tayene heritage.

"It's here, if you want it," Isabella told her. "But you don't need to decide today. I just wanted you to know."

Jason watched in silence while Trini cautiously investigated the unhoped-for trove that his mother had just handed to her. They had known all along. They had protected Trini all along. The realization almost made Jason want to laugh. He'd always known his parents were cunning, but he'd never realized just how sneaky they really were.

Trini was right when she said they still had a long way to go. But right now, in his childhood home once more, with his family and the woman he loved safe and sound beside him, the road ahead no longer seemed quite so daunting.


	50. Epilogue: The Hero Comes Home

Queen Kimberly Hart returned home triumphant on the back of a shining white dragon with her husband at her side. At the stroke of noon, with the sun at its apex, the two seemed to shine with inner and outer fire.

Garbed in a finely wrought and brilliantly pink dress decorated with embroidered firebirds in red and gold, Kimberly flouted the traditions that said she should wear only the colors of her family. What was even more surprising was that Kimberly was visibly pregnant and more radiant than anyone could remember seeing her before. Or, that was what they told her, at least.

The castle, her family's ancestral home ever since their flight from Phaedos, fairly sparkled in the brilliant noonday sun, and the entire court turned out to greet her. If anything had been amiss recently, there was no sign now. If some of her Councilors were less enthusiastic than others in their welcome, she graciously failed to notice.

Upon Lord Jonathan Scott and his wife Isabella, for their part in governing her kingdom in her absence, she bestowed medals of highest honor. Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch were elevated to the shared rank of captain of the royal guard, which had been empty all the long months since the plague. If Kimberly thought it strange that these two had helped to maintain order in the realm, she hid it with a smile. For Angela, Kimberly saved perhaps the most surprising reward of all: a seat on her Council. In Phaedos, she had seen the dangers of a stagnant Council. The rest of her Councilors did not know it yet, but Angela was only the first of many additions Kimberly planned to make.

With that out of the way, Kimberly began the long and tedious process of reintroducing her companions, with all their new ranks and honors, and presenting the Phaedan emissaries to the court. When Jason was introduced as Emperor of Phaedos, Kimberly calmly took note of who looked genuinely shocked, who seemed pleased by Jason's good fortune, and who looked as if they were up to no good. There would be trouble later, no doubt, as everyone fought to establish the most profitable ties with their new ally.

She didn't envy Jason any of that.

She was just glad to be home in one piece, with her husband beside her.

For the first time in weeks, Kimberly truly felt that, in the end, everything was going to be okay.

Jason would assume control of Phaedos, and she had no doubt he would rule the empire as justly as he knew how. Zack would stay by Jason's side, his second in command and staunchest and, as always, best ally. Billy and Katherine would continue their work in Phaedos; she hadn't told them, but she'd already decided to find a new head archivist for her own archives, so they could stay together in Phaedos doing the more important work of going through Zedd's papers. And Trini… there was no telling yet what Trini would do, but Kimberly was sure that, whatever it was, it would be the right thing for everyone.

She felt a pang at the thought of how many of her childhood friends would now be moving on to new things, even though she knew this wouldn't be good-bye. They'd still see each other and often. Aisha, Rocky, and Adam would be staying on as her new honor-guard, and their Ninjetti power of teleportation meant that Phaedos was only a thought away.

Late in the day, when the courtiers had at last departed to prepare for dinner, Kimberly still sat on her throne, upon the dais in the empty throne room. Tommy came in after a few minutes, looking relieved. "I've been looking for you," he told her. He worried more now, after everything they had been through, as if he did not quite believe she was really still alive.

"I just wanted to stay here for a while," she murmured. For the first time, this throne felt like it was _hers_. This was the place where she would spend much of her time from now on. From here, she would rule.

Tommy sat beside her, upon the King's throne. His place now, too.

"I can hardly believe it. It seems like this whole mess started just yesterday," he commented. "And now it's over."

She reached over to rest her hand on Tommy's. The other hand rested gently on her belly, where their child was still growing strong. "This chapter of our story may be ending," she told him, her voice rich with promise, "but another is just beginning."


End file.
